Mind the Gap: Considering Disparities in Implementing Measurement-Based Care

Abstract

Synergistic advancements in evidence-based practice, implementation science, health care policy, and health information technology (HIT) have led to increasing efforts to broadly implement measurement-based care (MBC)-the systematic use of repeated outcome measures to monitor treatment progress and support clinical decision making¹-in psychiatric services. Much of this work has been done with adult populations, and more efforts are needed for MBC to gain traction in child and adolescent psychiatry. In this Letter to the Editor, we describe a quality improvement (QI) project that leveraged HIT to implement MBC in the child and adolescent psychiatry department of a regional pediatric tertiary-care center and report long-term (5-year) implementation outcomes (ie, adoption and penetration). Although a myriad of implementation strategies was used, here we focus on the most complex strategy-integrating a digital measurement-feedback system (MFS) into standard workflow. Then, we discuss pitfalls and lessons learned with special attention to potential unintended effects of QI efforts on existing health disparities.