Improving rates of adolescent suicide risk screening in a primary pediatric clinic, a quality improvement project

In recent years, adolescents have experienced rising rates of suicidal ideation. Though pediatricians in our clinic were screening for depression, suicide risk screens were not completed. We designed a quality improvement (QI) project with the goal to increase the rate of suicide risk screening by 20 %, and improve clinicians’ attitudes toward the electronic health record (EHR) for mental health screening by 20 %. Baseline analyses included chart review and a provider survey. Suicide risk screen tools were built with decision-support into the EHR. After provider education was completed, the EHR-based interventions were implemented. Post-intervention, suicide risk screening completion increased from 8.8 % to 95 %. Provider attitudes towards the EHR also improved. This QI project demonstrates that implementing EHR tools that are provider-informed can help to improve suicide risk screening rates, streamline workflows, and help improve clinicians’ attitudes towards the EHR.