Does your utilization curve match your clinic philosophy?

Abstract A means of monitoring therapists' conformity with policy in a mental health clinic is the examination of annual utilization data. Specifically, graphs which display the frequency of different lengths of patient contracts reveal much about the working realities of how a clinic actually functions. Data from the mental health clinic at the University of Rochester's Student Health Service illustrate changes in staffing and ideology over a seven year period. The graph of current utilization reveals three relatively distinct cohorts of patients. Each cohort can be explicated with regard to clinical needs of patients, staff educational needs, or the clinic's embrace of time-limited therapy as a valued treatment modality. Periodic examination of such graphs can reveal whether actual practices correspond to stated ideology and policy.