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Improving Psychiatric Services Through Mystery Shopping

Dr. Lazarus is affiliated with the Department of Global Clinical Development, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, L.P., 1800 Concord Pike, P.O. Box 15437, Wilmington, DE 19850-5437 (e-mail: arthur.lazarus{at}astrazeneca.com).

Pseudo-patients, or "mystery shoppers," have been widely used in the medical setting to detect and correct deficiencies in the delivery of health care services. Persons pretending to be patients have found discrepancies between the service promised and the service delivered, leading to positive changes, such as reduced waiting times, increased retention of patients within medical practices, better explanations of procedures and proposed treatments, and improved encounters with office staff, physicians, and other health care providers. Mystery shopping in the field of mental health, however, remains an untapped strategy to improve service delivery, especially in public-sector programs. Competition among health care providers will likely encourage patients to comparison-shop for treatment, and psychiatric facilities should consider mystery shopping as an innovative method to improve the mental health care consumer's experience.

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