Lee Hsin-Chien, Lin Herng-Ching
Dept. of Psychiatry, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2007 Aug;42(8):669-72. doi: 10.1007/s00127-007-0214-z. Epub 2007 Jun 27.
Although much prior research has found a consistently positive volume-outcome relationship, there is scanty documentation on this issue in mental healthcare. This study examines the association between a hospitals' psychiatric inpatient volume and 30-day readmission rates.
Using administrative data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database for 2003, the likelihood of 30-day readmission is examined relative to the hospital's volume of voluntary psychiatric admissions and total bed-days.
As hospital volume increases, so too does the 30-day readmission rates for patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorders.
The positive volume-outcome relationship in patients suffering from psychiatric disorders suggests a different scenario from the 'practice makes perfect' phenomenon that may underlie the inverse volume-outcome relationship found among most physical disorders, both surgical and medical.
