Improving Domestic Violence Screening and Follow-Up in a Community Health Clinic

PURPOSE: To implement an improved DV screening and follow-up protocol at a suburban community health clinic that is consistently used by staff with appropriate female patients as well as to assess provider/staff barriers to this. METHODS: The project was completed at a community health clinic and included 2 presentations: the first to outline current practices as well as the intervention plan at the pre-intervention time point and then to review results of the intervention and elicit feedback post intervention. Provider/staff barrier surveys were completed at both time points. The intervention consisted of completion of the HITS DV screening tool on all appropriate female patients and a system-level algorithm-based follow-up care plan for positive cases. RESULTS: Eligible patient screening increased by 3.1% and patients screening positive increased from 0 to 1 from baseline to intervention. Average scores on the barrier surveys improved for all questions and improved significantly for 3 of the questions. The algorithm implemented was utilized for the positive screening. CONCLUSIONS: Use of a DV screening tool, that has shown good concurrent and construct validity in the literature, a system-level algorithm for follow-up care and addressing provider/staff barriers to screening and follow-up are essential components of a successful DV screening and follow-up program.