Numerator: Eligible adult emergency department patients with medical record documentation of brief counseling for unhealthy alcohol and/or drug use.

Denominator: Adult emergency department patients.

Scoring: numerator divided by the denominator, multiplied by 100 to convert to a percent.

Rationale: Brief intervention is a separate procedure from screening. Although the proportion of adult emergency department patients who receive a brief intervention depends on the prevalence of unhealthy and dependent alcohol and drug use (including prescription medication misuse) in the base population, medical records documentation of brief interventions for substance use problems ought not be rare phenomena (CDC estimates between 10% and 20% of emergency department adult visits are caused or complicated by substance use)

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