Treatment quality of inpatient depression care

Background. Several quality assurance initiatives in health care have been undertaken during the past years. The next step consists of systematically combining single initiatives in order to built up a strategic quality management. Methods. In a German multicenter study, the quality of inpatient depression treatment was measured in ten psychiatric hospitals. Half of the hospitals received comparative feedback on their individual results in comparison to the other hospitals (bench marking). Those bench markings were used by each hospital as a statistic basis for in-house quality work, to improve the quality of depression treatment. Results. According to hospital differences concerning procedure and outcome, different goals were chosen. There were also differences with respect to structural characteristics, strategies, and outcome. The feedback from participants about data-based quality circles in general and the availability of benchmarking data was positive. The necessity of carefully choosing quality circle members and professional moderation became obvious. Conclusions. Data-based quality circles including benchmarking have proven to be useful for quality management in inpatient depression care.