Integrating an outcomes information system into managed care for substance abuse.

The following paper describes a program launched recently to combine the efforts of two very different sectors of the outcomes management field--a managed behavioral healthcare company and a research-oriented academic center--and to pragmatically integrate outcomes data collection into routine clinical assessment and treatment processes in the substance abuse treatment field. This program has important implications not only for the behavioral healthcare industry's ability to satisfy external demands for outcomes data, but also as a foundation for better internal management and quality improvement processes.