A computer assisted eating disorder specific quality management system: EQUAL‐TREAT

In 1997 the COST B6 European Collaboration, which includes researchers from 19 European countries, began to develop a system of quality management to be used in the treatment of eating disorders. The system which arose out of this collaboration is presented in the current article. It is an extension of the ‘Heidelberg–Stuttgart Model’ of quality management which was designed for the treatment of patients with psychiatric illnesses. This model is well established in Germany where it has been used in a number of psychiatric hospitals for over 6 years. The model relies on the concept of ‘active internal quality management’ with external support. It incorporates solutions of the three key tasks of quality management: (1) the construction of an inventory for monitoring of relevant quality criteria in clinical practice, (2) operationalization of assessment tools which allow comparison with norms (Ist–Soll–Vergleich) on various levels of service provision and (3) provision of feedback tools. The central function of the system is the alarm function, which signals a possible deficit in treatment. This is based on treatment outcomes for individual patients according to the system. This information is then aggregated to facilitate continuous internal monitoring of quality, and is finally arranged for external comparisons. In this article we explain the principles of the system, introduce the model and illustrate its use with two clinical examples. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.