Medical Records Flag for Suicide Risk: Predictors and Subsequent Use of Care Among Veterans With Substance Use Disorders.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system established policies to include patient record flags (PRFs) for high suicide risk in the electronic medical record to alert providers and to increase health care contacts. This study identified predictors of new PRFs and described health care utilization before and after PRF initiation among VA patients with substance use disorders.

Methods

The sample included patients ages ≥18 who received a substance use disorder diagnosis in 2012 (N=474,946). Demographic, clinical, and utilization predictors of PRFs were identified by multivariable logistic regression. Changes in short-term (three months) and longer-term (12 months) health care utilization before and after PRF initiation were compared by negative bi

SUBMITTER: Berg JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6196077 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature