background Increasingly, health insurance companies are asking for treatment results in mental health care to be expressed in actual numbers. They base their request on the data supplied by sbg (Stichting Benchmark ggz) and the procedures that sbg has followed. For the purpose of benchmarking, the sbg has accepted a limited number of questionnaires. These tools are not suitable for performing routine outcome monitoring (rom) in clinical practice. There is a urgent need for these questionnaires to be replaced by a widely-used depression questionnaire, namely the ids.
aim To present arguments supporting the view that the ids is an excellent and useful instrument that the sbg should accept as a measuring tool.
method We discuss the quality of the ids by reviewing the literature.
results The ids is a high quality instrument well suited for measuring the severity of depressions and also is sufficiently sensitive for measuring mood improvements.
conclusion The ids is an excellent tool for performing rom measurements and is available free of charge. The authors argue that the sbg should accept this questionnaire as a suitable instrument for benchmarking.