One research group used information from 98 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) inpatient treatment programs to identify the characteristics of the most cost-effective clinics (Barnett and Swindle 1997). Their principal outcome measure was whether patients were readmitted to treatment at any VA hospital in the United States within 180 days of discharge. They found that both treatment cost and outcome were related to program size, intended length of stay, ratio of staff to patients, and client treatment histories. In addition, they concluded that 21-day programs were more cost-effective than 28-day programs.
