Screening women of childbearing age for intimate partner violence (IPV) is recommended by most U.S. health care organizations. However, the uptake of screening in primary care settings is low, including at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) mixed-gender clinics or those that share space with clinics that predominantly treat men, which are the clinics most women in the VHA attend. The VHA is the nation's largest health care system, and IPV is known to be more prevalent among women veterans than among nonveteran women. Researchers conducted a randomized program evaluation trial to evaluate the effectiveness of implementation facilitation to increase uptake of intimate partner screening programs in mixed-gender and shared-space primary care VHA clinics.

Medical record data for all women who received care at nine VHA primary care clinic sites in the three months before and the nine months after the start of implementation facilitation were included in the analyses. Implementation facilitation included an external facilitator working with an internal facilitator for six months to support local uptake of screening programs. The multifaceted intervention targeted barriers to implementing IPV screening programs within the VHA.

Women seen during the implementation facilitation period were three times more likely to be screened than those seen during the preimplementation facilitation period. Women screened during the implementation facilitation period weren't more likely than those screened during the preimplementation facilitation period to disclose IPV, but because of increases in the overall reach of screening associated with implementation facilitation, the disclosure rate doubled from 2.2% preimplementation to 4.4% during implementation facilitation. Among all screened women, those screened during implementation facilitation were more likely to receive psychosocial services within 60 days than those screened preimplementation facilitation.

There were several limitations related to the study design, including lack of a control group and reduced power for the clinical effectiveness outcome. In addition, it couldn't be determined whether psychosocial care specifically addressed IPV or whether women used non-VHA services.