Veterans Health Administration facilities need to better document disruptive patient behavior and interventions as well as standardize how it intervenes to prevent or minimize the risk of future incidents, the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general has said.
It said VHA facilities vary significantly in how they identify and manage disruptive patient behavior and that it found significant delays in facilities’ assignments of Category I Patient Record Flags, which are intended to alert VHA employees to patient behavior that may pose an immediate threat to other patients, facility employees, and visitors.
VA management agreed with a recommendation to ensure that VHA program officials provide guidance on what constitutes disruptive behavior and establish common terminology for VHA facilities, develop guidelines for what information facilities should document about disruptive incidents and where this information should be documented, and provide guidance to VHA facilities on collecting and analyzing data on disruptive incidents.
VA also agreed to consider implementing a reporting process or system for disruptive patient incidents and to ensure that VHA facilities implement procedures to improve the timeliness of flagging alarming patient behavior.
