Using Electronic Health Record Alerts to Increase Safety Planning with Youth At-Risk for Suicide: A Non-Randomized Trial

Authors

Jazmin Reyes-Portillo, Montclair State UniversityFollow
Erica M. Chin, Columbia University
Josefina Toso-Salman, Columbia University
J. Blake Turner, Columbia University
David Vawdrey, Columbia University
Laura Mufson, Columbia University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2018

Journal / Book Title

Child Youth Care Forum

Abstract

Background: No study to date has examined the effectiveness of integrating clinical decision support tools, like electronic health record (EHR) alerts, into the clinical care of youth at-risk for suicide. Objective: This study aimed to examine the feasibility and acceptability of using an EHR alert to increase clinicians’ use of safety planning with youth at-risk for suicide in an outpatient pediatric psychiatry clinic serving an urban low-income Latino community. Methods: An alert intervention was developed to remind clinicians to complete a safety plan whenever they documented that their patient endorsed suicidal ideation, plan, or attempt during a visit in EHR notes. The alert appeared as a separate window containing a reminder message to complete a safety plan once a clinician finished visit documentation. Results: There were 69 at-risk patients between the ages of 13–21 in the intervention period (M = 15.71; SD = 1.86; 66.7% female) and 64 (M = 15.38; SD = 1.93; 68.6% female) in the control period. Logistic regression analyses indicated that patients in the intervention period were significantly more likely than patients in the control period to receive a safety plan (p < .01). The pattern of results remained the same after adjusting for demographic variables (p = .01). Forty clinicians also completed a questionnaire assessing their satisfaction with the EHR alert, indicating moderate satisfaction (M = 3.01; SD = 0.63; range = 1.11–4.11). Conclusions: EHR alerts are associated with changes in clinicians’ behavior and improved compliance with best clinical practices for at-risk youth.

DOI

10.1007/s10566-018-9435-4

MSU Digital Commons Citation

Reyes-Portillo, Jazmin; Chin, Erica M.; Toso-Salman, Josefina; Turner, J. Blake; Vawdrey, David; and Mufson, Laura, "Using Electronic Health Record Alerts to Increase Safety Planning with Youth At-Risk for Suicide: A Non-Randomized Trial" (2018). Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 566.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/psychology-facpubs/566

Published Citation

Reyes-Portillo, J. A., Chin, E. M., Toso-Salman, J., Blake Turner, J., Vawdrey, D., & Mufson, L. (2018, June). Using electronic health record alerts to increase safety planning with youth at-risk for suicide: a non-randomized trial. In Child & Youth Care Forum (Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 391-402). Springer US.