Development and implementation of quality indicators in a group of nine psychiatric hospitals.

Quality indicators (QI) are becoming increasingly important in mental healthcare in Germany. QI can be used for various purposes, such as for creating transparency as well as for benchmarking between hospitals. QI themselves are subject to high quality standards.

[Joint crisis plans in mental health hospitals-Real practice in an association of psychiatric hospitals].

Background: Joint crisis plans (JCPs) are offered in many psychiatric hospitals, but patients only rarely make use of them.

Objective: To assess the rates of JCPs among inpatients of mental health hospitals and to analyze the clinical characteristics of patients who make use of a JCP.

Material And Methods: We carried out a retrospective analysis of routine data from the statistical database/basis documentation of the LVR hospital association, which consists of nine psychiatric hospitals.

Identification of risk factors for involuntary psychiatric hospitalization: using environmental socioeconomic data and methods of machine learning to improve prediction.

Background: The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with a high risk of involuntary psychiatric in-patient hospitalization both on the individual level and on the level of mental health services and the socioeconomic environment that patients live in.

Methods: The present study expands on a previous analysis of the health records of 5764 cases admitted as in-patients in the four psychiatric hospitals of the Metropolitan City of Cologne, Germany, in the year 2011 (1773 cases treated under the Mental Health Act and 3991 cases treated voluntarily). Our previous analysis had included medical, sociodemographic and socioeconomic data of every case and used a machine learning-based prediction model employing chi-squared automatic interaction detection (CHAID).

Volume-outcome relationship and minimum volume regulations in the German hospital sector - evidence from nationwide administrative hospital data for the years 2005-2007.

Background: This paper analyses the volume-outcome relationship and the effects of minimum volume regulations in the German hospital sector.

Methods: We use a full sample of administrative data from the unselected, complete German hospital population for the years 2005 to 2007. We apply regression methods to analyze the association between volume and hospital quality.