background Within a few years routine outcome monitoring (rom) has become a household word in Dutch mental health. As it provides more objective data, it promises to improve the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle with respect to treatment and benchmarking. Besides, it provides data for research in natural cohorts. A powerful driving force in the development of rom is its use as an instrument to make mental health providers more accountable to insurance companies and the authorities for their services. At right angles to these uses of rom is the economic pressure to reduce the comprehensiveness of rom as much as possible.
aim To present data to illustrate the limitedness of single-questionnaire versions of rom and to demonstrate the feasibility to work with shorter versions of questionnaires.
method rom-data of Rivierduinen and the lumc are used to compare the conclusions that can be drawn from a single instrument (the Brief Symptom Inventory) compared with a set of instruments and to develop shorter versions of instruments and new instruments that cover more clinically relevant domains.
results Additional questionnaires enrich the explanatory power of rom. Shortened versions of questionnaires are feasible.
conclusion The development of shortened versions of existing questionnaires and the introduction of short, new ones covering several relevant domains will help rom in the future to realize the goals described in the introduction.