Emergency Department Safety Assessment and Follow-up Evaluation 2

Summary

Many patients at risk for suicide are discharged from the ED with little or no intervention. Evidence-based suicide prevention interventions, like universal screening and safety planning should be adopted in clinical practice to help prevent suicidal behavior. This study will test the long-term sustainability of the nurse administered universal screening implemented in the original ED-SAFE study. Also, the investigators will test the impact of a new personalized Safety Planning Intervention guided by Lean has on suicide composite outcomes.

The ED-SAFE-2 will use a stepped wedge design where the original eight ED-SAFE sites will collect quantitative and qualitative data during the three phases: Baseline, Implementation, and Maintenance. Using this data, the ED-SAFE-2 will examine both within and between site differences for existing screening practices and new care processes, including safety planning. Most of the data collection on outcomes will be done by retrospective chart review.

A Lean Implementation Strategy will be used to ensure that adoption of improved care processes are fully supported vertically and horizontally within the organization, infrastructure is built that supports the efforts, and that the protocols fit naturally within roles, responsibilities, and clinical flow.

Consistent with the RFA's emphasis, the intervention target will be the clinician's behavior, including, at minimum, screening and safety planning. All emergency mental health and nursing personnel at the sites will be trained on safety planning, and Lean will be used to help ensure the safety planning is being implemented properly and consistently. The mechanisms of action of the combination of the safety planning training and Lean will be studied, allowing the team to establish both the effect the intervention has on the intervention target but also on the mechanisms of action comprised of departmental culture change and infrastructure support.

Conditions

• Suicide

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Safety Planning

Suicide screen-positive patients who are to be discharged from the ED will receive personalized safety planning by a mental health clinician or nurse

BEHAVIORAL

A Lean Implementation Strategy

The Safety Planning Intervention will be implemented using Lean performance improvement strategies. Sites will be trained on the Safety Planning Intervention and Lean.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

  collaborator NIH

• University of Massachusetts, Worcester

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Edwin D Boudreaux, PhD · University of Massachusetts, Worcester

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2014-01-31

Primary Completion

2018-10-31

Completion

2018-10-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations