In mental health care settings, measurement-based care (MBC) refers to an evidence-based approach which routinely collects patient reported outcome measures to track treatment progress for patients. In MBC, clinical practitioners and patients work together collaboratively during the clinical encounter to review and integrate into treatment planning all patient reported outcome measures. In this way MBC is fully aligned with patient-partnered care frameworks and can quickly identify patients who are not progressing well in treatment or who are not responding as well as expected to any given treatment modality. Multiple reviews have found that MBC is associated with greater symptom reduction and reduced dropout rates among patients. Although the effect sizes of MBC are small, the benefits to large health care systems, including increased efficiency in provision of care and reduced wait times and backlogs are substantial and meaningful.

Given the potential benefits of MBC, there have been significant efforts in military, Veteran, and civilian health care systems to implement MBC. However, these efforts have thus far yielded mixed results. Several factors operating at the level of patients, clinicians, clinics, and health care systems have been theorized to function as barriers and facilitators to the successful implementation of MBC but remain mostly unknown.

Notwithstanding the challenges in successful implementation, MBC has also been shown to be helpful in identifying best practices for difficult to treat common mental health conditions such as depression and PTSD