Outcomes Management: Incorporating and Sustaining Processes Critical to Using Outcome Data to Guide Practice Improvement

An outcomes management system (OMS) greatly facilitates an organization or state achieving requirements regarding accountability
and use of empirically based interventions. A case example of the authors’ experience with a successful and enduring OMS is
presented, followed by a review of the literature and a proposed model delineating the key components and benefits of an OMS.
Building capacity to measure performance requires embedding utilization of youth-specific, clinically meaningful outcome data
into the organization’s processes and structures. An OMS measures outcomes associated with services, facilitates implementation
of evidence-based practices, informs case decision making, enables better and more efficient clinical management, and provides
aggregated information used to improve services. A case-specific supervisory model based on instantaneously available information,
including progress to date, helps maximize consumer outcomes. Continuous quality improvement activities, which are databased
and goal-oriented, become a positive change management tool. This paper describes organizational processes that facilitate
the development of a highly functional OMS.