Usability Testing a Context-Sensitive Strategy for Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment

Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an evidence-based process healthcare personnel use to screen, manage, and triage patients struggling with substance use. The process requires clinic staff to furnish patients with structured screening questions. Providers can then offer treatment and mental health referral when indicated. Our team recently deployed a digital tablet-based version of the SBIRT screening questions in primary care. However, we needed to assess patient-reported usability of our approach because negative perceptions could limit clinic adoption, patient completion of the process, and effective referral. We, therefore, conducted a usability evaluation of our digital SBIRT screening instrument using a cross-sectional patient survey. Most participants (64.2%) reported completing the screening questions in under five minutes, with no reports of completion times exceeding fifteen minutes. Our results suggest the tablet-based SBIRT screener is easy to understand and can be efficiently completed before a clinical encounter. Furthermore, patients believed the digital SBIRT screener increases clinician awareness of patient health issues and promotes positive action. These findings support the continued use, wider adoption, and integration of digital SBIRT tools in clinical settings.