Takeaways for Depression Screening and Follow-Up in Clinical Settings
Just because a patient scores positive for the depression screener, a clinician should dig deeper before making a diagnosis.
Patients have the right to refuse a screener and their wishes should be respected.
Providing a screener may not be appropriate at every visit, such as for a patient with a sprained ankle or a potential respiratory infection where time is limited.
Clinicians can clarify within the measure that the patient did not have mental capacity on that visit to fill out the screener.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.