The Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) is a brief parent-report questionnaire that is used to assess overall psychosocial functioning in children from 3 to 18 years of age. Originally developed to be a screen that would allow pediatricians and other health professionals to identify children with poor overall functioning who were in need of further evaluation or referral, the PSC has seen such wide use in large systems that it has increasingly been used as a quality indicator and as an outcome measure to assess changes in functioning over time. In addition to the original 35 item parent report form of the PSC in English, there are now many other validated forms including translations of the original form into about two dozen other languages, a youth self-report, a pictorial version, and a briefer 17 item version for both the parent and youth forms.
The PSC is an outcome and a process measure. In the Numerator Statement and in the sections that follow we will delineate specifications for two different meanings of each of these uses of the PSC.
i. The PSC is an "OUTCOME MEASURE OF PSYCHOSOCIAL PROBLEM PREVALENCE" Number of children aged 3-18 with an initial positive PSC screen for psychosocial problems (cutoff is >23 for ages 3-5 and >27 for ages 6-18).
ii. The PSC is an "OUTCOME MEASURE OF PROBLEM REMISSION/IMPROVEMENT" Number of children aged 3-18 with an initial positive PSC screen for psychosocial problems who screen negative on the PSC at their next well child visit; or, more precisely, the number of children aged 3-18 with an initial positive PSC screen for psychosocial problems who show a clinically significant improvement (reliable change of six or more points and screen negative at their next well child visit).
iii. The PSC is a "PROCESS MEASURE OF WHETHER SCREENING HAS TAKEN PLACE" Children aged 3-18 who had documentation of screening with the PSC or another approved, standardized instrument.
iv. The PSC is a "PROCESS MEASURE OF WHETHER FOLLOW-UP HAS OCCURRED FOR PATIENTS WITH A POSITIVE SCREEN" Children aged 3-18 with a positive screening on the PSC or another standardized psychosocial measure who had a follow up visit with a behavioral health provider within 90 days.
Denominator
1.15 Denominator
i. Number of children aged 3-18 receiving a well child visit.
ii. Number of children aged 3-18 with an initial positive screening on PSC at their annual well child visit who were seen for a subsequent well child visit and rescreened with the PSC.
iii. Number of children aged 3-18 seen for a well child visit in the given measurement year.
iv. Number of children aged 3-18 who had screened positive for a psychosocial problem during a well child visit.
Exclusions
Exclusions
Children aged 3.0 to 17.99 who did not have a well-child visit during the measurement period.
Measure Record
Most Recent Endorsement Activity
Measure Retired and Endorsement Removed Behavioral Health Project 2013-2015
Initial Endorsement
Last Updated
Removal Date
Point of Contact
Steward Organization
Massachusetts General Hospital
Steward POC email
MMURPHY6@partners.org
Steward Organization Copyright
copyright 1984, Michael Jellinek and Michael Murphy, Massachusetts General Hospital
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