Improving Pediatric Emergency Department Lethal Means Safety Documentation Rates for Adolescents with Mental…

StudyPediatric quality & safety· 2026

Improving Pediatric Emergency Department Lethal Means Safety Documentation Rates for Adolescents with Mental Health Concerns.

Cassandra L Stegall, Ana-Maria McGill, John Fanton, Paul C Mullan

Pediatric Emergency MedicineStudyClinical practiceQ2IF 1.1

Complete lethal means documentation rose sharply with EHR-embedded screening prompts.

Improving Pediatric Emergency Department Lethal Means Safety Documentation Rates for Adolescents with Mental Health Concerns.

Cassandra L Stegall … Paul C Mullan

Pediatric quality & safety · 2026

Background

Lethal means safety counseling (lethal means safety counseling) is recommended for children presenting to the emergency department (emergency department) for a mental health (mental health) evaluation.

Purpose

We aimed to increase any LMSC documentation and complete LMSC documentation to exceed 75% and 50%, respectively, during a 6-month period, with sustained success.

Methods

Period 2 implemented an electronic health record "PowerForm" in Cerner PowerChart.

Results

1%

to 68%

complete documentation of lethal means access jumped after prompts were added

More results

During intervention 2, any LMSC documentation increased to 90%, but complete LMSC documentation rates did not change significantly (66%).

“

Conclusion

We achieved a significant increase in any LMSC documentation and complete LMSC documentation for mental health evaluations in our emergency department. Lessons learned may generalize to other emergency department settings.

Improving Pediatric Emergency Department Lethal Means Safety Documentation Rates for Adolescents with Mental Health Concerns.

Improving Pediatric Emergency Department Lethal Means Safety Documentation Rates for Adolescents with Mental Health Concerns.

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