Outcome management has been suggested as a promising strategy to improve quality of mental health care. However, there is a lack of evidence on the efficacy of feedback of treatment outcome to people with severe mental disorder and their clinicians. Thus, the study "Outcome monitoring and outcome management in inpatient psychiatric care" (EMM) aims to to ascertain the short- and mid-term effect of outcome management in inpatient psychiatric care.

This cluster-randmised trial started in June 2005. 294 participants who gave informed consent have been recruited among patients admitted to a large psychiatric hospital in rural Bavaria. These were asked to provide information on treatment outcome on the Outcome Questionnaire 45 via weekly computerised assessments. Patients and clinicians in the intervention group received continuous feedback of outcome.

Patients were willing and able to provide outcome data on a regular basis. Patients highly valued feedback of outcome while clinician acceptance was moderate. At discharge, there were no differences between the feedback and no-feedback groups on patient-rated outcome. However, as compared to the no-feedback group, length of stay of patients with good outcome who received feedback was shorter while it was longer for those with unfavorable outcome. Further findings on the mid-term effect of feedback at follow-up and on the cost-effectiveness of the intervention will be reported.

Implications of these results for further improving the effectiveness of outcome management in mental health services and thus contributing to an adaptive allocation of treatment resources will be discussed.