Andalusia is the most highly populated (7,849,799 hab.) region of the Spanish State. It has all the sanitary domains under its own Health Service (Consejería de Salud), and it has undertaken a deep reorganization of the psychiatric services, establishing a new model based on the mental health communitarian alternative that is already completely implanted. Rates of readmission are a method to assess the quality of care and an important tool in the planning of services of mental health.

The aim of this study is to establish if readmission rates are influenced by Human Resources in Psychiatric Community Devices.

Part of FIS Project PI05/90061 ‘Patterns of General Hospital Psychiatric Units Overuse’.

MBDS is a system of hospital register that gathers all the discharges produced in the andalusian hospitals. It is totally trustworthy from 1995, and we have processed data up to 2004.

Our Data Set register 101234 hospital admissions of psychiatric patients.

The number of admissions from patients who enter three times or more throughout the year has been: 22.66%(1995); 24.66% (1996); 31.01%(1997); 30.72%(1998); 34.07%(1999); 35.35%(2000); 36.92%(2001); 32.93%(2002); 31.20%(2003) and 29.36%(2004).

On the other hand, it has been an increase in Mental Health Human Resources Rates: 24.23-100.000 inhab-(1998); 24.19 (1999); 26.01(2000); 28.04(2001); 29.83(2002); 29.16(2003); 29.34(2004) and 29.90(2005).

Increasing human resources in psychiatric community devices do not change revolving-door rates in general hospital acute psychiatric units in a community mental health system.