Introduction: Adolescent depression has been brought to the forefront of pediatric mental healthcare in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With an increased burden brought upon this age group, healthcare providers must adequately screen for depression. The standard of care is that all adolescents are screened for depression annually. To improve this screening process, the ideal place to start is in pediatric primary care.

Methods: Adolescents at the project site complete a Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) depression screening during annual well visits allowing symptoms of depression at other times throughout the year to go undetected. The project intervention included implementing PHQ-9 depression screenings at all visits, both well and sick, for patients ages 12 to 18 to capture additional positive screenings.

Results: For patients ages 12 to 18, a total of 261 clinic visits occurred during the project’s implementation phase. Well visits accounted for 158 while the remaining 103 were sick visits. Positive depression screenings were noted for 24 adolescents, 11 at well visits and 13 at sick visits. Therefore, the rates of positive depression screenings at sick visits were considerably higher than those obtained at well visits.

Discussion: Once the implementation of additional depression screenings occurred, data were analyzed to determine the clinical significance of continuing PHQ-9 screenings at all adolescent clinic visits. Based on statistical analysis, more frequent adolescent depression screenings prove to be beneficial in identifying patients experiencing depression.

Conclusions: The project intervention was proven to be successful as PHQ-9 screenings administered at sick visits yielded additional positive depression screenings for patients that may have otherwise gone undetected. By implementing more frequent depression screenings, patients at risk for depression may be identified earlier and receive appropriate treatment. Subsequently, receiving earlier intervention and treatment for depression will in turn improve long-term patient outcomes.