Dallas-Fort Worth Intimate Partner Violence Coalition
About Us
The DFW IPV Violence Coalition was formed as a subcommittee of both Tarrant and Dallas Counties’ Fatality Review Teams (FRTs). In over five years of fatality case reviews, both Dallas and Tarrant County have found that health care organizations (HCOs) are often the only systemic intersection a victim of intimate partner violence (IPV) has before her/his death. However, IPV red flags are often missed due to incomplete IPV screenings at intake.
After a particularly heinous murder was reviewed by the Tarrant County FRT in 2016, one local hospital decided to look into the effectiveness of their IPV screenings during intake. Discovering that their statistics were below ideal, they implemented a new IPV screening and protocol. In only two years, the hospital has seen a significant increase in both the number of patients screened for IPV and an increase in positive screens, which has allowed more victims to receive the support and resources they deserve. The Coalition is confident that these positive results can be replicated across DFW.
An effective domestic violence screening protocol is a standard put forth by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations*, and it could be the only opportunity for systemic intervention prior to an individual’s death at the hands of her/his intimate partner.
Initial Data Collection
In 2017, the DFW IPV Coalition and the DFW Hospital Council began collecting data from area hospitals to determine:
- How HCOs are currently screening patients for IPV
- How HCOs can better identify and support victims in the future
In its initial survey, the Coalition discovered that all HCO participants (22) screen for IPV with the emergency department triage as the most common site (96%) and standard procedure (91%) as the most common prompt. In a follow-up survey, participants (8) reported standardized facility based questions (83%) as the most common screening tool for IPV/DV. Participants were split on how they feel their organization administers the IPV/DV screen according to its purposes, almost always (50%) or sometimes (50%). Click HERE to view a comprehensive infographic of these results.
Next Steps
After collecting this initial data on the use of IPV screenings, the Coalition is furthering its mission by requesting that HCOs conduct a three-month retrospective search in their emergency department and one in-patient department to determine how many patients were seen and how many screened positively for IPV.
The results of this data collection will be analyzed to determine how DFW HCOs can increase their rates of completed IPV/DV screens, decrease instances of false negatives, and provide resources for more IPV victims.
You can help improve DFW’s healthcare response to intimate partner violence (IPV)!
Step 1. Determine who in your healthcare organization (HCO) can complete a brief three-month retrospective search of IPV/DV screens to determine how many patients completed intake paperwork, how many were screened for IPV, and how many screened positively.
Step 2. If your HCO has any logistical or HIPAA concerns regarding this data search, please click HERE for Frequently Asked Questions.
Step 3. Input the collected data HERE. Data will only be available to the DFW IPV Coalition and will be de-identified and aggregated before the results are shared with any other parties.
Step 4. Once responses have been received, the Coalition will follow-up to discuss next steps of this initiative.
*The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCHAO) has created a standard related to IPV assessments with patients and documentation to identify and refer possible victims of abuse or neglect (The Joint Commission Standard PC.01.02.09, 2014). The standard requires that hospitals must implement policies and procedures for identifying and assessing possible victims of abuse and neglect.
