Brief CTI reduces risk of early readmission
A soon-to-be published article in Psychiatric Services investigates the impact of a brief version of CTI (B-CTI) on the occurrence of psychiatric readmission of adults with serious mental illness. A sample of 149 adults with a psychiatric inpatient readmission within 30 days of a prior psychiatric hospitalization was referred to an acute level of service coordination available at six provider organizations implementing B-CTI. These providers operate within the network of Community Care Behavioral Health, a not-for-profit managed care organization operating in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. A comparison group of persons (n= 224) served at the same organizations before implementation of B-CTI was derived from administrative data. Readmission rates for both groups within 30 and up to 180 days of the prior readmission were compared. The proportion of individuals readmitted within 30 days of a discharge was significantly lower for the BCTI cohort (28%) than the comparison cohort (47%). Longer-term readmission rates also were lower in the BCTI cohort but were not significantly different from the comparison cohort (44% versus 52%). Controlling for patient characteristics and service utilization measures, individuals in the comparison group were 2.83 times more likely to be readmitted within 30 days than those who received B-CTI.