CANTON, Mass. — MEDITECH has expanded its Depression and Suicide Prevention Toolkit with additional evidence-based screening, safety planning and treatment resources designed for use within electronic health record workflows.
The new content includes Ask Suicide-Screening Questions guidelines for real-time risk screening, the Stanley-Brown Safety Plan and the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality Framework, known as CAMS.
MEDITECH said the tools will be embedded directly into its Expanse electronic health record platform to help clinicians identify, monitor and treat patients at risk of suicide in inpatient, outpatient and emergency department settings.
“We are continuing to build onto our Depression and Suicide Prevention Toolkit with the latest gold standard evidence-based content and tools,” said MEDITECH Associate Vice President Janet Desroche. “This ensures our customers have the support they need to screen for, intervene, monitor, and consistently coordinate care transitions to prevent the risk of suicide.”
MEDITECH worked with the nonprofit organization SPiER to secure rights to the clinical content. SPiER focuses on integrating suicide prevention resources into the electronic systems clinicians use during routine care.
“MEDITECH has been a leader in bridging the gap between electronic health records and suicide prevention,” said SPiER Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Virna Little. “These latest additions to the platform not only support frontline users but save lives.”
The toolkit already includes clinical decision-support resources based on the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale and other validated screening guidelines. Surveillance tools can send alerts to care teams when patients may require closer monitoring in hospitals or emergency departments.
The addition of the Stanley-Brown Safety Plan is intended to help patients and clinicians prepare for suicidal crises by identifying warning signs, coping strategies, supportive contacts and emergency resources before discharge.
“The science behind the Stanley-Brown Safety Plan is grounded in a simple but powerful idea: suicidal crises can escalate quickly, but they are often time-limited,” said Gregory K. Brown, Ph.D., co-developer of the Stanley-Brown Safety Planning Intervention.
MEDITECH said its platform also includes patient registries, follow-up reminders and referral tools to help healthcare organizations maintain contact with at-risk patients after they leave a clinical setting.
The CAMS Framework provides clinicians with a patient-centered approach focused specifically on assessing and treating suicidal thoughts and behaviors. MEDITECH said incorporating the associated documentation into its system could improve coordination as patients move between emergency, inpatient and outpatient care.
“Making these forms available to clinicians in their MEDITECH system will help to optimize treatment outcomes and save lives,” said CAMS-care President David A. Jobes, Ph.D.
MEDITECH said the expanded content is intended to help health systems reduce gaps in care, improve follow-up and provide more consistent suicide prevention services across clinical departments.
