If appropriate and co-ordinated follow-up is provided after discharges, patients are not usually re-admitted to hospital within 30 days. A high rate of unplanned re-admissions is therefore an indicator of the quality of several dimensions of the mental health system. In order to monitor quality of mental health care and mental health system performance, unplanned 30 day hospital re-admission rates are used by organisations in various OECD countries such as the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the Care Quality Commission in the United Kingdom and the National Mental Health Performance Monitoring System in the United States.