Something is happening.  Something big.

Downloads of the Outcome and Session Rating Scales have skyrocketed.

The number of emails I receive has been steadily increasing.

The subject?  Routine outcome measurement.  The questions:

• Where can I get copies of your measures?

Paper and pencil versions are available on my website.

• What is the cost?

Individual practitioners can access the tools for free.  Group licenses are available for agencies and healthcare systems.

• Can we incorporate the tools into our electronic healthcare record (E.H.R.)?

Three companies are licensed and authorized to provide an “Application Program Interface” (or API) for integrating the ORS, SRS, data aggregation formulas, and feedback signals directly into your E.H.R.  Detailed information and contact forms are available in a special page on my website.

• What evidence is available for the validity, reliability, and effectiveness of the measures?

Always a good question!  Since the tools were published seventeen years ago, studies have multiplied.  Keeping up with the data can be challenging as the tools are being used in different settings and with diverse clinical populations around the world.

Each year, together with my colleague, New Zealand psychologist, Eeuwe Schuckard, we add the latest research to a comprehensive document available for free online, titled “Measures and Feedback.”

Additionally, the tools have been vetted by an independent group of research scientists and are listed on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices.

• How can I (or my agency) get started?

Although it may sound simple and straightforward, this is the hardest question to answer.  There is often a tone of urgency in the emails I receive, “We need to measure outcomes now,” they say.

I nearly always respond with the same advice: the fastest way to succeed is to go slow.

We’ve learned a great deal about implementation over the last 10 years.  Getting practitioners to administer outcome measures is easy.  I can teach them how in less than three minutes.  Making the process more than just another, dreary “administrative task” takes time, patience, and persistence.

I caution against purchasing licenses, software, or onsite training.  Instead, I recommend taking time to explore.  It’s why the reviewers at SAMHSA gave our application for evidence-based status the highest ratings on “implementation support.”

To succeed, start with:

1. Accessing a copy of the ICCE Feedback Informed Treatment Manual–the single, most comprehensive resource available on using the ORS and SRS.  Read and discuss them together with colleagues.
2. Connect with practitioners and agencies around the world who have already implemented.  It’s easy.  Join the International Center for Clinical Excellence–the world’s largest online community dedicated to routine outcome measurement.
3. Send a few key staff–managers, supervisors, implementation team leaders–to the Feedback-Informed Treatment Intensives.   The Advanced and Supervision workshops are held back-to-back each March in Chicago.  Participants not only leave with a thorough understanding of the ORS and SRS, but ready to kick off a successful implementation at home.  I tell people to sign up early as the courses are limited to 35 participants and always sell out a couple of months in advance.