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Article History

Received: 12 February 2018

Accepted: 10 January 2019

First Online: 8 February 2019

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: The Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Cooper University Hospital determined that this study was exempt from review as it did not meet the Federal definition of research. Patients who underwent the behavioral health assessment described in this manuscript provided verbal consent prior to beginning the assessment. We used a verbal consent process for two reasons. First, the behavioral health assessment was done for clinical care coordination purposes first and foremost, not primarily for research. Second, patients had already provided written consent in the hospital to receive care coordination and case management services from the Camden Coalition, and the signature of consent is stored electronically in the Camden Coalition’s client tracking data system. Patients who refused to undergo a behavioral health assessment were not assessed, and therefore do not have a behavioral health assessment in our data set. Access to Camden Health Information Exchange data for clinical and research purposes is allowed under the terms of Participation Agreements and HIPAA Business Associate Agreements between participating hospitals and the Camden Coalition. Access to hospitals’ electronic medical records (EMRs) is allowed under HIPAA Business Associates Agreements between the Camden Coalition and each hospital, and Confidentiality Agreements between Camden Coalition staff members and each hospital.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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