Phase-Based Care in Community Mental Health: A Cost-Effective Innovation Using Algorithms, Rating Scales and Treatment Teams for Depression Management.

This retrospective, observational report describes an innovative quality improvement process, Phase-based Care (PBC), that eliminated wait times and achieved positive clinical outcomes in a community mental health center's (CMHC) mood disorder clinic without adding staff. PBC accomplishes this by eliminating the ingrained cultural practice of routinely scheduling stable patients at rote intervals of 1-3 months, regardless of clinical need or medical necessity. Based on four organizational transformations and using mathematical algorithms developed for this process, PBC re-allocates therapy and medical resources away from routinely scheduled appointments and front-loads those resources to patients in an acute phase of illness. To maintain wellness for patients in recovery, lower frequency and intensity approaches are used. This report describes the development of the PBC methodology focusing on the Rapid Recovery Clinic (RRC) comprised of 182 patients with a primary diagnosis of a mood disorder, the largest of the 14 PBC clinics created. Over an 18-month period, wait times were reduced from several months to less than one week and recovery rates, meaning no longer in an acute phase, were 63% and 78% at weeks 6 and 12, respectively for patients who engaged in the program.

Transoesophageal echocardiography and cardioversion: feasibility of a combined approach in clinical practice.

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation, the most common clinically important arrhythmia, is often treated by external cardioversion preceeded by transoesophageal echo (TOE) which are usually performed as separate procedures. We performed TOE and cardioversion as a combined procedure to evaluate its safety and feasibility. METHOD: 173 patients were referred for a combined procedure; 154 underwent a combined TOE and cardioversion. We evaluated the safety and the duration of hospital stay in this group of patients. A cost analysis was performed comparing 32 patients (Group 1) who had a combined procedure in the first 6 months, with 18 patients who had two separate procedures (Group 2) in the 6 months preceeding this. RESULTS: Analysis of 154 patients who underwent the combined procedure demonstrated a median time from admission to discharge of 9h with a mean procedure time of 36 min. No significant technical problems were identified with the combined procedure as a single sedation. Total admission time, TOE to discharge time (p<0.0001) and procedural costs were lower in Group 1. CONCLUSION: Combined TOE and cardioversion is an effective and safe procedure that permits a patient to have a single sedation with a short hospital stay with decreased health costs.

The left atrial function index: a rhythm independent marker of atrial function.

AIMS: This study evaluates a simple echocardiographic rhythm independent expression of left atrial (LA) function, 'the left atrial function index' (LAFI). BACKGROUND: Quantitation of LA function is challenging and often established parameters including peak A are limited to sinus rhythm (SR). We hypothesized that atrial function could be characterized independent of rhythm by combining analogues of LA volume, reservoir function and LV stroke volume. METHODS: Seventy-two patients with chronic atrial fibrillation (CAF) were followed for six months post cardioversion (CV). Thirty-seven age matched healthy subjects were controls. The LAFI = LAEF x LVOT-VTI/LAESVI (LAEF = LA emptying fraction, LAESVI = maximal LA volume indexed to BSA, LVOT-VTI = outflow tract velocity time integral). RESULTS: The LAFI pre-CV in the CAF group was depressed vs controls (0.10 +/- 0.05 vs 0.54 +/- 0.17; P = 0.0001). Post-CV, LAFI was lower in persistent AF than in those restored to SR (AF vs SR: 0.08 +/- 0.03 vs 0.15 +/- 0.08; P = 0.0001), improved progressively in SR and was unchanged when AF persisted. CONCLUSION: The LAFI, a simple, rhythm independent expression of atrial function, appears sensitive to differences between individuals in AF and those restored to SR and justifies clinical and investigative applications.

Improving the clinical utility of the SIRS cognitive items: preliminary reliability, validity, and normative data in pretrial and clinical samples.

The utility of the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms [SIRS; Rogers, R., Bagby, R. M., & Dickens, S. E. (1992). Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources], Improbable Failure Rate (IF) scale in pretrial (N=64) and clinical (N=153) samples was explored. Internal consistencies of the IF items were alpha=.81 and alpha=.92, respectively, with split-half reliabilities of .89 and .84, respectively. The IF scale loaded distinctly from the SIRS primary (psychosis) scales in principal components analysis, and the pattern of performances among clinical groups were as expected (e.g., normal controls outperformed patients with focal lesions and dementia, CHI patients outperformed dementia patients). Performance on the IF items was correlated with MMSE score (r=-.59, p

Comparison of left atrial volume and function after linear ablation and after cardioversion for chronic atrial fibrillation.

Several techniques for treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) have been developed, including the direct placement of radiofrequency for lesions at open heart surgery. Detailed evaluation of left atrial (LA) function has not been performed after these procedures and has not been compared in patients with chronic AF. We compared the atrial function of patients with sustained sinus rhythm (SR) after linear ablation with a group who underwent direct-current cardioversion and a group of normal controls to investigate the measurable deleterious effects, if any, on atrial function after the surgical procedure. Twenty-one consecutive patients who had maintained SR for >6 months after a linear radiofrequency ablation (LRFA) procedure were studied. As control subjects, we examined 33 patients with chronic AF successfully restored to SR by cardioversion who maintained SR for >6 months and 42 age-matched normal subjects. LA function was decreased in both the LRFA and cardioverted AF groups compared with normal controls. The parameters of LA function, atrial fraction, LA ejection fraction, and the A' velocity were lowest in the LRFA group, intermediate in the cardioverted AF group, and highest in the normal controls (LA function: 15.8 +/- 10%, 26 +/- 10%, 33 +/- 7%; p = 0.0001; LA ejection fraction: 31 +13%, 41 +/- 12%, 51 +/- 9%; p = 0.0001; A' velocity: 4.2 +/- 1.4, 7.6 +/- 2.2, 9.5 +/- 1.9 cm/s; p = 0.0001). LA volumes were increased in the LRFA and cardioverted AF groups compared with normals (62.8 +/- 22 vs 70.6 +/- 17 vs 38.7 +/- 9.8 ml; p = 0.0001). Thus, although LA function is restored and maintained after LRFA has been performed during open heart surgery, LRFA use is associated with a measurable decrease in LA function over and above that found after conventional cardioversion.