Improving Completion of a Routine Outcome Measure at Admission and Discharge in a National Health Service Crisis Team: A Quality Improvement Study

Background Routine outcome monitoring is an important component of contemporary mental health care. Completion of structured outcome measures at admission and discharge supports clinical decision-making and service evaluation. Local policy within National Health Service Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde) requires completion of the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation - 10 item measure (CORE-10) at these time points. This study evaluated baseline compliance within the Renfrewshire Intensive Home Treatment Team (IHTT) and assessed the impact of targeted quality improvement interventions. Methods A quality improvement audit cycle study was conducted across two audit cycles in August and November 2025. All patients admitted by the service during each month were included. The primary outcome was documented completion of the CORE-10 measure at admission and discharge. Interventions implemented between cycles included structured teaching sessions, visual reminders, and weekly multidisciplinary team prompts. Proportions were compared using chi-square testing. Results Twenty-nine patients were included in cycle one and twenty-eight in cycle two. Admission completion improved from four of twenty-nine patients (13.8%) to fifteen of twenty-eight patients (53.6%) following intervention (χ² = 10.04, p = 0.002). Discharge completion remained low, from one of twenty-nine patients (3.4%) to one of twenty-eight patients (3.6%) (χ² = 0.00, p = 0.97). Conclusion Targeted educational and team-based interventions significantly improved admission completion of a routine outcome measure within a crisis service. However, discharge completion remained poor, suggesting persistent structural barriers at transition points in care. Further system-level strategies are required to embed sustainable discharge outcome monitoring.