Views:
Change vs. Service Target (Clinician/Provider)
These statistics look at how the clients in the report are progressing compared to the final Service Target for clients entering services with the same intake score.
 
 
 
 
 

Service Target ORS 

 
 

The Service Target is the predicted score for a successful outcome in a case. It is derived from the expected treatment response for that client using the ORS predictive algorithms. 

 
 

The Service Target is the point on the green line where the client should be at the end of treatment if they are progressing as expected for successful cases. 

 
 
 
 

Percentage of clients reaching service target:  

 

 
 

The percentage of clients reaching service target is the % of clients whose lastest ORS scores was in the green successful treatment zone and whose latest score meet or exceeded the Service Target score.  

 
 

They are similar to clients in the normative sample that entered treatment with the same intake ORS score AND had a successful treatment outcome. 64% to 74% of closed cases in the green successful treatment is considered to be the normal range. 

 
 
 
 

Change Index (Residual Change)  (Service) 

 
 

This is the difference between the average session target for clients in the report and the average of their most recent ORS scores. This is also known as the average residual. The residual is the amount of change indicated by the session ORS score that was due to treatment rather than chance or random change. 

 
 

A positive number indicates that progress for these clients has exceeded expectations for the final outcome of treatment while a negative number indicates that the Service Target has not yet been reached. 

 
 
 
 

ESSA (Service) 

 

 
 

This is the overall Severity Adjusted Effect Size (ESSA) based on the Service Targets for the clients in the report. It is calculated using the Session Change Index score divided by the standard deviation of the overall clients in the ORS normative database. This is added to the mean effect size for the dataset to give the service Severity Adjusted Effect Size (ESSA).  

It provides a measurement of the effect of treatment compared to no treatment (when correcting for number of sessions, regression to the mean, severity at intake and bias).  

 
 

It provides a measure of how the clients in the report have progressed compared with clients at the same point in treatment who began with the same intake score.  

An ESSA is "corrected" or severity adjusted when it takes into account that clients tend to have different intake scores because they vary in the severity of their problems. 

The Service ESSA will tend to be lower for active ongoing clients compared to closed (inactive) clients because they have not completed treatment. 

 
 
 
 

Benchmarking ESSA (Service) scores  

 
 

As discussed, it is helpful for clinicians to know their effectiveness in comparison to a more “absolute” benchmark. While there is no definite way to quantify effectiveness, one method is to compare against published clinical trials. An ESSA = 0.72 is at par with the treatment effect observed in clinical trials. 

 
 

Effect sizes of 0.8 or larger are considered large and are viewed as “providing highly effective treatment”, while effect sizes of 0.5 to 0.8 can be considered moderately large and viewed as “providing effective treatment”.  

Effect sizes less than 0.5 are considered evidence of “providing treatment that did not have a statistically meaningful impact with regard to improving outcomes”. Effect sizes of less than 0.3 are small, indicating limited progress in treatment or change that might well have occurred without any treatment at all. 

 
 
 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 
 
 

ESSA Relative (Service) 

 

 
 

The Relative ESSA is a comparison of the Service ESSA for clients in the report with the mean or average Service ESSA for all clients in the ORS normative database.  

Essentially you are comparing how the clients in your report progressed compared to the mean or average improvement of all clients in the normative database with the same intake scores. 

When calculating the Relative Service Effect Size the ESSA (Service) is a fairer comparison of a therapist’s or agency’s effectiveness as ESSA adjusts the effect size score based on the severity of the intake score. 

 
 

A positive number indicates better than average progress compared to clients in the ORS normative database did.  

A zero indicates average progress was the same as clients in the ORS normative database.  

A negative number indicates average progress of clients in the report was less than clients in the normative database i.e they are not progressing as well as clients in the ORS normative database did. 

 

Keywords: reports, statistics, targets, service, change, trajectories