Implementing routine outcome measurement in psychosocial interventions - a systematic review

While routine outcome monitoring (ROM) has been found significant for psychosocial outcomes, the issue of how to implement ROM remains under researched. This review explores the ROM implementation literature via searches through PsychInfo, SocIndex, Academic Search Elite and Social Sciences Citation Index following PRISMA guidelines to generate a comprehensive view of implementation. 2958 articles were identified of which 48 were included. The literature on ROM implementation refers to a wide variety of systems, at various stages of development, in use in a wide variety of psychosocial contexts. Much of the literature is methodologically weak and written by consultants, managers and researchers about their experiences. The literature shows a field characterised by a high degree of experimentation. Findings were identified concerning management/leadership, inter organisational factors, a top down and bottom up process, ROM feedback culture, the implementation team, coordinators/champions, staff factors, supervision/consultation, training, measures, reports, generating a language for ROM use in clinical practice and client factors. More research is required with regard to making routine measurement not merely relevant to, but an integral and explicit part of, everyday clinical practice. Furthermore, the impact of ROM implementation for the organisational structures and development needs to receive more attention.