Targeting Trafficking in the Emergency Room

A new triage screening protocol at Henry Ford Health System was used to identify 17 victims of human trafficking in the Detroit area in its first year of use.

Henry Ford implemented the protocol last year. “It actually worked and we kept it going,” said Danielle Jordan Bastein, a nurse at Henry Ford. Bastein developed the protocol while studying at Detroit’s Wayne State University and helped implement it at Henry Ford after she began working at the hospital’s ER, where nurses are typically the first authority a trafficking victim feels safe confiding in. Michigan has the sixth-highest number of reported human trafficking cases in the nation.

A questionnaire in Epic coupled with staff training on common signs of trafficking lets clinicians respond with targeted care and intervention. When a nurse flags a patient in Epic as a possible trafficking victim during initial triage, the primary nurse on call follows up with the more in-depth assessment questionnaire that helps him determine whether the patient needs assistance. Patients who request help get the assistance they need from authorities, while those who won’t or can’t are discreetly provided with a number of an assistance hotline.

Read more about Henry Ford’s implementation of Bastein’s protocol at Fox 2 Detroit.