Addiction treatment agencies' use of data: a qualitative assessment

• Published in: The journal of behavioral health services & research 2006-10, Vol.33 (4), p.394-407
• Main Authors: Wisdom, Jennifer P, Ford Ii, James H, Hayes, Randy A, Edmundson, Eldon, Hoffman, Kim, McCarty, Dennis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Addiction; Addictions; Behavior, Addictive - therapy; Data analysis; Data collection; Decision making; Decision Making, Organizational; Evaluation Studies as Topic; Evidence based; Health care; Health Services Accessibility; Humans; Interviews as Topic; Quality management; Social services agencies; Substance abuse treatment; Substance Abuse Treatment Centers - organization & administration; Substance Abuse Treatment Centers - statistics & numerical data; Treatment methods
• ISSN: 1094-3412; 1556-3308
• DOI: 10.1007/s11414-006-9039-x

Addiction treatment agencies typically do not prioritize data collection, management, and analysis, and these agencies may have barriers to integrating data in agency quality improvement. This article describes qualitative findings from an intervention designed to teach 23 addiction treatment agencies how to make data-driven decisions to improve client access to and retention in care. Agencies demonstrated success adopting process improvement and data-driven strategies to make improvements in care. Barriers to adding a process improvement and data-driven focus to care included a lack of a data-based decision making culture, lack of expertise and other resources, treatment system complexity, and resistance. Factors related to the successful adoption of process-focused data include agency leadership valuing data and providing resources, staff training on data collection and use, sharing of change results, and success in making data-driven decisions.