Quality assurance in a setting designed to care for patients with combined medical and psychiatric disease.

In an attempt to address the needs of patients with combined medical and psychiatric illness, a variety of clinical centers are now creating medical/psychiatry units. These units differ widely in their clinical capabilities, yet no adequate delineation of safeguards regarding quality of care currently exists. This article discusses minimum quality guidelines for four types of medical/psychiatry units that are based on the level of acuity of patients' medical and psychiatric disease.