Development and validation of a level-of-care instrument for predicting residential placement.

A level-of-care instrument developed in Missouri uses discriminant analysis and a criterion measure based on the state's continuum of community residential facilities to assess psychiatric patients' abilities and deficits and to match individual patients with a suitable community setting. The instrument assigned 57 percent of the patients in the sample used in development of the instrument and 43 percent in a validation sample to the same type of residential facility recommended by case managers. The instrument more accurately predicted placement than two instruments that were used earlier in the state and were not based on its specific array of facilities.