Hospital-based HMO: an outpatient study.

With the increasing pressure from managed care companies and in cooperation with its medical staff's independent practice association, the Vista Hill Foundation formed its own specialty health maintenance organization. This is a report on an outpatient study of treatment satisfaction among 124 mental healthcare providers (50% of whom were psychiatrists) and their 218 patient experiences. Treatment outcome was rated as "very satisfactory" or "satisfactory" in 82% of the studied cases. Managed care was found to cause "mild" to "moderate" treatment interference in 26% of the cases and "significant" to "major" interference in 6%. There was no interference reported in 60% of the cases studied. Our study demonstrates that a hospital provider and its managed care system can provide satisfactory care, but it also reveals the need to constantly review treatment programs to reduce interference. The study and report are part of Vista Hill Foundation's ongoing quality review efforts.