Horizontal equity and mental health care: a study of priority ratings by clinicians and teams at outpatient clinics

Abstract

The low interrater reliability and generalizability found in our study suggests that horizontal equity to mental health services is not ensured with respect to priority. Priority -setting in teams provides no significant improvement compared to individual rating, and the additional use of these resources may be questionable. Improved guidelines, tutorials, training and calibration of clinicians may be utilized to improve the reliability of priority-setting.