Managing Adult Depression with the PHQ-8 at Telehealth Follow-Up Visits: A Quality Improvement Project
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Date
2024-05
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
Telehealth has become an increasingly common route of healthcare delivery since the COVID-19 pandemic that caused global shutdowns and necessitated reimagining how care is delivered. Using objective tools to evaluate and treat depression in the telehealth arena is necessary. Review of literature supports using a validated Patient Health Questionnaire such as the PHQ-8 or PHQ-9 to reassess depressive symptom severity in response to treatment or no treatment. Within the project practice site, the PHQ-8 was not being implemented for telehealth depression follow up appointments. Consultation with a psychiatrist within the organization confirms that the psychiatry department was also not administering the PHQ-8 electronically at depression follow up appointments. The project involved administering the PHQ-8 questionnaire at all telehealth depression follow up visits for the pilot provider. The project achieved 100% assigning of the PHQ-8 to all depression telehealth follow up visits for the pilot provider over the six-week implementation period. There was a 28.5% completion rate by patients due to challenges within the EHR system where the PHQ-8 was not visible to patients for completion. Project challenges support the importance of small tests of change as well as the inclusion of information technology (IT)support into the interdisciplinary team when planning implementation of a quality improvement projects involving EHR systems. Solutions to address the technological issues are needed to expand and sustain the practice change of administering the PHQ-8 to all depression telehealth follow up visits at Organization O.
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Keywords
telehealth, depression, depression follow-up, PHQ-8