There are many benefits generally associated with growing an organization. Ours is no exception. By adding residential level of care, we will finally be in a position to provide the (near) full continuum of care, exclusive of inpatient. Because recovery is not always a straight line up, sometimes our patients require more than what we have been able thus far to provide to them in day programming. When this happens, we refer them to the appropriate level of care that can help. However, because there are very few places around the country that offer our style of integrated care for co-occurring substance use, eating disorders, mood disorders and related trauma, “our” patients usually end up getting great treatment for some of what they might be struggling with but not for “all of it”. In other words, for the person struggling with both addiction and an eating disorder, there are lots of amazing places to send that person to for eating disorder treatment OR addiction treatment but very few who actually do both. This will no longer be the case when we open our RTC (Residential Treatment Center) this summer. Patients who want and need treatment for, “all of the above under the same roof and at the same time” will have a home at the RTC level of care. This is what we do currently, and this is what we will do in RTC. Patients who need the type of care that we provide will benefit and so too will their families and their payers.
One of the biggest challenges all organizations face when expanding services, adding staff, and adding locations lies in a risk to quality. The larger we get; the more complicated many things tend to get. Our organization is not unique in this regard in that these are already challenges we are facing today as we prepare to open RTC. However, ultimately, we believe the quality we are able to provide our patients will actually INCREASE with this new addition. Just as we have done at every other step of our growth trajectory, we will be watching all quality measures with a laser like focus. Increasing VALUE for our patients, their families and their payers will always remain a core part of our DNA. Everything we do is intended to increase quality. Everything.
OUTCOMES
The last time we published a comprehensive outcome report was January 2020. It showed extensive results from our inception in 2016 through 2019 and can be found HERE. At this time, we were just beginning to expand from one location to three, and similar to today, we were mindful of the impact expansion might have on quality. In fact, quality as defined by average improvements in the OQ45 scale show that our patients are reporting an improvement when we compare the two time periods. Though this does not surprise us and there are many reasons for this, we did not and do not take any of it for granted. Note: the lower the score, the better.
January 2020 April 2021
OQ at admission 86.7 85.56
OQ at discharge 70 69.44
OQ 180 days post 69 65.66
OQ 365 days post 69 61.95
A few other notes to level set as we enter this next period of the SCH journey, which we promise to compare back to after a year of having RTC open.
How likely are you to recommend SCH to a friend of colleague?: Average Score out of 10 is 8.61
Average PHQ8 Score at Admission: 12.69
We just recently began to collect data using the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS). We look forward to sharing this data once we collect enough for it to be meaningful. We not only believe that food addiction is real, but we also possess the clinical acumen to treat it when it exists.
As we continue to grow and expand our services to those in need, our goal is not just to maintain the quality of care that we provide but rather to increase it. We know this is what our patients need and deserve, and this is what we intend to deliver.