Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
U.S. flag
An official website of the United States government
Veterans Benefits and Health Care About VA Find a VA Location

VA Health Systems Research

Go to the VA ORD website
Go to the QUERI website

HSR&D Citation Abstract

Search | Search by Center | Search by Source | Keywords in Title

Regional Variations in Documentation of Sexual Trauma Concepts in Electronic Medical Records in the United States Veterans Health Administration.

Jones AL, Pettey WBP, Carter ME, Brignone E, Redd A, Suo Y, Divita G, Blais RK, Fargo JD, Gundlapalli AV. Regional Variations in Documentation of Sexual Trauma Concepts in Electronic Medical Records in the United States Veterans Health Administration. AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium. 2020 Mar 4; 2019:514-522.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions


Abstract:

Experiences of sexual trauma are associated with adverse patient and health system outcomes, but are not systematically documented in electronic health records (EHR). To describe variations in how sexual trauma is documented in the Veterans Health Adminstration's EHR. Sexual trauma concepts were extracted from from 362,559 clinical notes using a natural language processing pipeline. We observed variations in the presence of sexual trauma in notes across five United States regions: Pacific, Continental, Midwest, North Atlantic, Southeast. We also observed variations in the types of notes used to document sexual trauma (e.g., mental health, primary care) and sources of sexual trauma (e.g., adult, childhood, military) mentioned in the EHR. Our findings illustrate potential differences in cultural norms related to patient disclosure of sensitive information, and provider documentation. Standardized protocol for eliciting and documenting sexual trauma histories are needed to ensure Veteran access to high quality, trauma-informed care.




Questions about the HSR website? Email the Web Team

Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.