Overview
San Joaquín Medical Center is a university hospital in Santiago, Chile, with an outpatient mental health clinic that serves a diverse patient population. The clinic has integrated MHIRA to monitor the psychotherapy process, enabling psychologists and psychiatrists to track treatment progress systematically and provide evidence-based care.
Setting Type
Outpatient Mental Health Clinic in University Hospital
Personnel
Psychologists and Psychiatrists
Implementation Approach
The clinic has adopted an innovative workflow where front-desk workers provide assessments on tablets in the waiting room. This approach maximizes clinic efficiency by having patients complete assessments while waiting for their appointments, ensuring that clinicians have up-to-date information before the session begins.
Data Collection Mode
Front-desk workers hand tablets to patients in the waiting room. The tablet camera scans a QR code to quickly access the appropriate assessment, streamlining the process and reducing wait times.
Main Purpose
The primary goal of implementing MHIRA at CMJS is to monitor the psychotherapy process. Regular assessments enable clinicians to track symptom changes over time, evaluate treatment effectiveness, and make data-informed adjustments to care plans. This systematic approach supports continuous quality improvement in mental health services.
Monitoring Psychotherapy Process
Regular assessment enables CMJS clinicians to track treatment progress longitudinally, identifying trends and outcomes to optimize therapeutic interventions and provide data-informed care.
Assessment Approach
The implementation utilizes a core set of open-source and validated instruments focused on common mental health conditions encountered in outpatient settings. These include depression and anxiety screening tools, clinical outcome measures, and personality functioning assessments. The flexible platform allows clinicians to select the most appropriate assessments for each patient's presenting concerns and monitor progress throughout the therapeutic process.
Key Benefits
Efficient Workflow Integration
By collecting assessments in the waiting room, the clinic maximizes efficiency without adding burden to clinical time. Patients complete assessments while waiting, and results are immediately available to clinicians.
Systematic Progress Monitoring
Regular assessment data enables clinicians to objectively track patient progress, identify stagnation or deterioration early, and adjust treatment plans proactively.
Evidence-Based Treatment
Standardized, validated measures provide objective data that complements clinical judgment, supporting evidence-based practice and enhancing treatment outcomes.
Impact
The implementation at CMJS has demonstrated how digital tools can be seamlessly integrated into routine clinical practice, providing valuable data for treatment monitoring while maintaining workflow efficiency in a busy university hospital setting. The waiting room assessment model has proven particularly effective, maximizing clinical time while ensuring systematic data collection for evidence-based care.