Failure of intimate partner violence screening among patients with substance use disorders.

Objectives: This study examined the relationship between substance use disorder (SUD) and intimate partner violence (IPV) screening and management practices in the emergency department (ED).

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of adult ED patients presenting to an urban, tertiary care teaching hospital over a 4-month period. An automated electronic data abstraction process identified consecutive patients and retrieved visit characteristics, including results of three violence screening questions, demographic data, triage acuity, time of visit, and International Classifications of Disease, 9th revision (ICD-9), diagnosis codes.