Redefining hospital indicators for psychiatry.

Introduction. Now, the medical system represents one of the biggest fields in the global economy and is one of the most important factors for community development and for sustaining social well-being. Performance indicators of activity are essential instruments used for the management of the hospitals. They offer valid information that allows us to identify the weaknesses and strengths of the institutions and to improve the management performance. Objectives. Talking about psychiatry, patients with the same main diagnostic, with the same treatment and duration of the hospitalization can present significant differences when looking at the complexity of the medical services and the resources that were needed. Therefore, a personalized approach adapted to the social particularities and to the functionality of the psychiatric patients is needed. Methodology. This paper represents a review of the literature which is based on a series of scientific articles that have as a theme the activity indicators of hospitals, looking especially at the evaluation of the activity in a psychiatric hospital. Results. Multiple studies have identified the following factors to be associated with psychiatric cases as predictors of using resources for the mental health: diagnostic stage of the illness, the severity of the symptoms, the risk of self-harm and aggressivity, the level of functioning socially and professionally, comorbidities, and sociodemographic characteristics. Conclusions. The high management of a hospital needs a multidimensional approach, each medical field having its own particularities. Therefore, in psychiatry, the complexity indicators need an individual approach. Prospective payment for each case, based solely on the primary diagnostic and the number of hospitalization days, has proven to be superficial. A wrong evaluation of the human resources needed and of the materials for each case impaires the providing of high-quality medical services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]