Improving care for the treatment of alcohol and drug disorders.

The Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment (NIATx) teaches alcohol and drug treatment programs to apply process improvement strategies and make organizational changes that improve quality of care. Participating programs reduce days to admission, increase retention in care, and spread the application of process improvement within their treatment centers. More generally, NIATx provides a framework for addressing the Institute of Medicine's six dimensions of quality care (i.e., safe, effective, patient-centered, efficient, timely, and equitable) in treatments for alcohol, drug, and mental health disorders. NIATx and its extensions illustrate how the behavioral health field can respond to the demand for higher quality treatment services.