The evidence for effective psychiatric admissions as measured by an audit of Health of the Nation Outcome Scales recording.
The Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) were developed in the 1990s to measure health outcomes following a request by the Department of Health [1]. The then UK government’s target to ‘improve significantly the health and social functioning of mentally ill people’ required a method of recording health improvement [2]. HoNOS was developed to become a standardized tool to be used routinely by all mental health practitioners. HoNOS is now one item of the English Minimum Data Set for Mental Health being collected and is the most widely used routine clinical outcome measure used by English mental health services [3]. The aim is for patients to have HoNOS scores recorded at the start and end of each episode of care, such as an admission to hospital. The HoNOS consists of 12 scales used to rate different aspects of mental and social health, each from 0 to 4, giving a maximum total score of 48. The scales are completed after routine clinical assessments in any setting by a qualified mental health care professional who have undergone HoNOS training.