Date of Award

Winter 12-13-2025

Degree Type

Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Department

School of Nursing

First Advisor

Jennifer Stewart-Glenn

Abstract

Depression is a chronic condition affecting millions of Americans annually and is often associated with poor clinical outcomes, multiple co-morbidities, a negative economic impact, and an increased mortality rate. Many primary care settings have implemented universal depression screening programs following the recommendations of governing healthcare entities such as the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Due to positive benefit, universal depression screenings have now been included as a quality measure in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) to increase organizational reimbursement. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) is a widely used screening tool that assesses for the presence and severity of depressive symptoms. Fast Pace Health is a company that serves as a large provider of primary care in the Eastern Tennessee area that has implemented a universal depression screening protocol using the PHQ-9 as a quality improvement approach to increase behavioral health recognition, specialty referrals, and reimbursement. This project is a program evaluation project with aims to analyze and evaluate the numbers of depression screenings that were performed before and after this policy, the internal behavioral health referral rates before and after this policy, and the referral adherence rates with patients who are internally referred. This program evaluation used data analysis to appraise institutional compliance with universal depression screening. Results have revealed that Fast Pace Health has a higher percentage than the average universal depression screening rate in the primary care setting and positively influenced behavioral health referrals.

Download

Included in

Nursing Commons

Share

COinS