As the problem of substance abuse grows among youth of many nations, ensuring that young people have access to the highest quality and most effective drug and alcohol treatment becomes an ever more pressing public health issue. Since the mid-1990s, there have been a number of scientific advancements that have led to new medications and therapies with promising potential for substance abuse treatment (McLellan, 2002). However, while great strides have been made in research and in laboratory, many of these findings are not being transported into active treatment settings (McLellan, 2002). The translation of research into practice is significantly hindered by a disconnect between the clinical development and testing of effective interventions and the existing substance abuse treatment practice settings and the policy dictates that govern them.

For decades, the social sciences have linked organizational structures and processes to worker productivity and product quality. From Fredrick Taylor's work, which demonstrated increased productivity of assembly line processes, to the human relations school, which linked worker satisfaction and happiness to greater productivity, researchers have tried to determine the impact of organizational structure and processes on worker ability and product quality. This understanding has informed health-services research efforts to identify the delivery characteristics associated with efficient and effective patient care and the organizational environments needed to support the practice of evidence-based medicine in hospitals.