Quality of outpatient care in schizophrenic patients: Integrated treatment in comparison to standard of care

Quality of outpatient care in schizophrenic patients: Integrated treatment in comparison to standard of care Introduction: The integrated treatment is to overcome barriers between the treatment sectors of patient care. The aims are to optimise treatment processes by improving the information flow, transparency, treatment satisfaction, compliance and thereby reaching a reduction of relapse and inpatient treatment. This study was to examine to which extent these objectives could be implemented in an outpatient clinic. Methods: There was a group of 95 schizophrenic outpatients participating in the integrated treatment which was compared in a matched-pair design with a group of standard care concerning satisfaction with treatment, compliance, medication, quality of life, rate of (early) relapses, and time of inpatient treatment. Results and conclusion: In both groups, patients had a comparably high extent of satisfaction and compliance. Concerning quality of life there are also no differences, showing an unimpaired subjective but an impaired objective quality of life. In the integrated care group there was a significantly higher amount of complementary social care. In both groups rates of relapses and duration of inpatient treatment considerably decreased over time but no group difference could be found in the degree of decrease. In conclusion, there is no evidence for an improved care within integrated treatment apart from a higher extent of complementary social care but the results show a high quality of care in the outpatient clinic in general.