Ganesh Palaniappan
Pronouns: He/him
Research Mentor(s): Lindsay Bornheimer
Research Mentor School/College/Department: / Social Work
Program:
Authors: Ganesh Palaniappan, Nick Brdar, Lindsay Bornheimer
Session: Session 1: 9:00 am – 9:50 am
Poster: 59
Abstract
Little to no research has been done on racial disparities in inpatient psychiatric risk assessments. Despite the well-documented influence of implicit bias on medical decision-making across various domains, its specific impact on inpatient psychiatric care remains unclear. Risk assessments significantly contribute to decisions regarding admission, discharge, and specific treatment throughout an inpatient psychiatric stay, all of which are impacted by clinician bias. Chart reviews were conducted for 1700+ electronic health records of adolescents and young adults who arrived at emergency services at the University of Michigan. Analyses focused on specific risk factors, protective factors, and their relationships to demographic characteristics, service utilization, and suicidality. Results showed that on average, African American female patients who were assigned the protective factor of, “African-American female,” by a provider during their stay spent 5 more days in inpatient psychiatry than those who weren’t labeled as having that specific protective factor. This study provides insight into outdated risk assessment tools and gives the foundation to help create a less biased and more inclusive screening tools to aid providers in admitting, treating, discharging patients at a hospital. Further studies are warranted to test the efficacy of new static, imminent, and protective factors for non-white adolescent and young adult groups.
