The aim of this project is to develop and test a basic screening and placement tool (TSAR) for use by treatment coordinating and managed care organizations. Item for measuring specific American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) criteria will facilitate the triage procedure for determining the most appropriate level of care for drug abusers. The products will include the TSAR instrument, a manual of instructions for administration and scoring of the instrument and a training videotape. A marketing strategy (Phase III) will focus on making this technology transfer package available to single State agencies and managed care organizations and providers. In Phase I, data will be collected on the initial prototype instrument on a sample of 100 patients admitted to the four ASAM levels of care. The planned reliability studies and some of the validity studies for the TSAR will be completed in Phase I. A treatment outcome study on 100 patients admitted to each of the four levels of care (n = 400) is planned for phase II to establish the predictive validity of the TSAR, based on the retrospective determination of how well it does in matching patients to the most cost-effective levels of care.Proposed commercial application:The structured interview instrument (TSAR) to be developed has a high potential commercial application to managed care organizations and substance abuse coordinating agencies to assist in applying ASAM criteria for placement of drug abuse patients. A manual for administration and scoring of TSAR and a training videotape will be prepared as part of the technology transfer package.National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
