Background: Employers recently requested a valid metric of depression treatment quality. Such an indicator needs to measure the proportion of the population in need who receive high-quality care, and to predict clinical improvement.
Methods: We constructed an administrative database indicator derived from HEDIS criteria for antidepressant medication management, and tested it in 230 employed patients in five health plans.
Results: Indicator rates were 7.0% in the population in need. Conformance to indicator criteria in this population was associated with 23.0% improvement in depression severity over 1 year (p = .02).
Conclusions: Administrative database indicators that predict clinical improvement are a very rare accomplishment. Existing depression indicators may need to be calculated for the population in need to provide a valid metric for employer purchasers.