Prevalence of Behavioral Flags in the Electronic Health Record Among Black and White Patients Visiting the Emergency Department.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Behavioral flags in the electronic health record (EHR) are designed to alert clinicians of potentially unsafe or aggressive patients. These flags may introduce bias, and understanding how they are used is important to ensure equitable care.

Objective

To investigate the incidence of behavioral flags and assess whether there were differences between Black and White patients and whether the flags were associated with differences in emergency department (ED) clinical care.

Design, setting, and participants

This was a retrospective cohort study of EHR data of adult patients (aged ≥18 years) from 3 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, EDs within a single health system between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2019. Secondary analyses excluded patients with sickle cell dis

SUBMITTER: Agarwal AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9857105 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature