The Mental Health module provides computer support for both clinical and administrative patient care activities associated with mental health care. Psychiatrists and psychologists have directed its design with active input from all health care disciplines, guided by the principle of creating software that makes the clinician’s job easier and leads to better patient care. A by-product of this approach has been the creation of a clinical database, which is useful to mental health program managers in many ways, including evaluating clinical productivity, monitoring and improving the quality of care, and trending various patient care events. This clinical database package is comprehensive and accessible from workstations throughout medical facilities.

Mental Health Clinicians have a need for improvement of performance measurements through the use of standardized assessment tools. This patch is constructed to add 24 clinical instruments to the Mental Health Assistant (MHA3) application. Outcomes Monitoring refers to the evaluation of the treatment provided patients in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). These new instruments will assist clinicians and administrators with the analysis of the effectiveness of treatment, help clarify diagnoses and provide empirical measures for treatment outcomes.