Clinical experience of the modified nurse-assisted screening and psychiatric referral program

Objective: We previously reported that the nurse-assisted screening and psychiatric referral program (NASPRP) facilitated the psychiatric treatment of depressive patients, but the high refusal rate was a problem even though referral was recommended by the nurse to all positively screened patients. We modified the program so that the nurses could judge the final eligibility of referral using the result of the screening. This study assessed if the modified NASPRP led to more psychiatric referral of depressive patients. Method: We retrospectively evaluated the annual change of the psychiatric referral proportion and compared the findings among the usual care term, the NASPRP term, and the modified NASPRP terms. Results: The referral proportions of the modified NASPRP terms were 4.4% and 3.9%. These were not significantly higher than the usual care term (2.5%), and significantly lower than the NASPRP term (11.5%). Significant of results: The modified NASPRP did not facilitate psychiatric treatment of depressive patients and another approach is needed.