Clinical supervision of the initial interview: effects on patient care.

The authors raise the question of whether the directly supervised initial evaluation of outpatients by psychiatric residents influences the quality of patient care. The charts of 78 patients with direct supervision and 78 patients with traditional supervision were randomly selected for review four months after the initial interview. More than twice as many patients with direct supervision remained in active treatment or terminated after successful short-term treatment compared with traditionally supervised patients in the early intake period. Patients with direct supervision also received a less pathological diagnosis.