Crossing the quality chasm in behavioral health care: The role of evidence-based practice

The concept of evidence-based practice (EBP) is one receiving increasing attention from providers, managers, payers, and regulators of care, yet practical guidelines for professional psychologists who may be interested in incorporating EBPs into their own work settings are not available. The author explores the pragmatics of EBP adoption within the broad context of quality problems in American health care, particularly as described in a heralded 2001 publication by the Institute of Medicine. Concrete suggestions are offered to help practitioners locate EBP resources for specific clinical problems, use an evidence hierarchy to infer "best practices," address the science-to-service management challenge, and generate outcomes data and feedback loops to continuously improve clinical effectiveness.