Emergency psychiatric evaluation of "organic" mental disorders.

The emergency psychiatrist must first differentiate abnormal behavior with a medical etiology from that caused by so-called functional processes. Delays in diagnosis can be catastrophic and make a compelling argument for physician involvement in emergency mental health care.

Monitoring the quality of psychiatric care.

Modern medical quality assurance depends on the identification and continual monitoring of important parameters or indicators of care. Indicators are defined as measurable clinical variables, often related to high volume, high risk, or problem-prone areas of medical care. Although the identification and monitoring of indicators is often a complex task, there are several areas in psychiatry where effective indicators can be developed.

The new information technologies and psychiatry.

The author reviews the history and technology of the microcomputer and discusses the various classes of software that are presently available. Three major categories of software are described: numeric data processing, text processing, and communications. The application of this software to psychiatric education and practice is briefly discussed.

Quality assurance monitoring in psychiatry.

The implementation of quality assurance monitoring is an important response to public demands for accountability in medicine as well as a requirement for institutional accreditation by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). The author examines the somewhat elusive definition of quality as it is applied to medical care. He reviews the history, terminology, and reasons for quality assurance monitoring and presents the JCAHO-defined concepts of indicators and thresholds.