Outcome Referrals
As a pediatrician I use numerous forms to screen children for depression, anxiety, suicidal risk, substance abuse, ADHD and other. These forms are also used to monitor patients undergoing treatment.
I recently interviewed David Kraus PhD, President, and Chief Scientific Officer of Outcome Referrals, who developed the Treatment Outcome Package (TOP), to screen adults, adolescents and children for a wide range of symptom and functional domains. The TOP consists of a 58-question questionnaire for adults and adolescents and 48 -question questionnaire for children that can be filled out in minutes. It is used to establish a diagnosis and to monitor a patient’s improvement during and following treatment.
Dr. Kraus has demonstrated that the TOP system can be used to identify therapists who are most appropriate to meet a patient’s individual needs. This has been validated via several studies available on the outcome referral web site.
The interview is wide ranging and very informative. The TOP can be filled out via paper forms or via an online portal and repeated as indicated. What I find most exciting is that Dr. Kraus is developing a system, called “FastPass” to facilitate access to appropriate therapists. As we are all aware patients now often must wait months to see a therapist, and hopefully the FastPass system, once implemented will shorten wait times considerably. Stay tuned
