Vista’s Learnings from Three Years of Addiction Treatment Outcomes Research found that the most important factor in whether a patient is able to remain abstinent after treatment is whether or not they successfully completed treatment. For example, the percentage of patients who reported being abstinent for at least the last 30 days at six months post-treatment was 72% higher for those patients who completed treatment versus those who did not.
Clearly, reducing the percentage of patients who leave treatment against medical advice (AMA) should be an important addiction treatment goal. However, identifying these less-engaged or unhappy patients in time to take appropriate action is easier said than done.
Fortunately, the INSIGHT Addiction™ monitoring surveys can help to identify patients at higher risk of leaving AMA. In a small study, we found that two factors – how frequently patients responded to requests to submit update surveys and the type of comments they made – could identify almost 80% of patients who ended up leaving treatment AMA. By comparison, only 40% of the patients who completed treatment were similarly unresponsive or gave predominantly negative feedback:
For more information about using Vista’s state-of-the-art research tools to reduce the incidence of patients leaving treatment early, please sign up for an evaluation call or call one of our friendly research experts at (800) 215-3201 extension 1.
