Perinatal depression is one of the most common perinatal complications. It occurs in up to 19% of pregnant or postpartum women. It can negatively affect pregnancy outcomes and compromise the parent-infant relationship, in turn impacting childhood development. Perinatal depression screening is recognized as an effective means of identifying perinatal depression. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends screening pregnant and postpartum women. Maternal depression occurs five to ten times as often as gestational diabetes and at least as often as pregnancy-induced hypertension. Screening for perinatal depression is a logical step toward optimizing patient health outcomes. Prior to the implementation of this project, there were no screening processes, tools, or guidelines in place for identifying mothers at risk for perinatal depression at the project site. Clinicians were not trained to educate patients on perinatal depression or to address it fully with treatment and patient education of perinatal depression. Considering the prevalence and risks associated, it is important to implement a perinatal depression screening process and a referral system with resources to for those who screen positive. The project proposed to address this by implementing a depression screening process. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale was used as the screening tool or perinatal depression. The project goal was to screen 90% of perinatal care patients for perinatal depression. The process included educating the clinic staff to properly administer, score, document and address the Edinburgh Depression Scale score. The outcomes were specifically geared towards assessing the efficacy of the perinatal screening process. Chart reviews were used to determine that the clinic staff was correctly documenting the depression tool score and correctly imputing the electronic health record alert for next perinatal depression screening. Although the outcomes were not met, the project was successful in educating the clinic staff on the importance of perinatal depression screening and the negative outcomes of untreated perinatal depression. The MA and front office staff were introduced to evidence based practice. Nevertheless, the change has taken place and perinatal depression screening continues to be part of the daily clinic process. The perinatal depression screening process can easilty be applied and modified to various settings.
