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Before you begin

Use the official wording for all 10 items with a hospitalized patient after emergency care. HMHRS predicts later mental health risk; it is not a diagnosis.

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Use the item-specific time frame exactly as written and select the matching official response.

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Answer review
Primary Care PTSD Screen (PC-PTSD-5) Check a lifetime trauma gate and five past-month PTSD symptoms, then see how the 0–5 PC-PTSD-5 score compares with 3+ and 4+ cut points.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-5) Assessment Complete the 20-item past-month PCL-5, see the 0 to 80 total and DSM-5 cluster counts, and review screening cut points with safety context.
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Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) Assessment Complete the DASS-21 for the past week and review doubled Depression, Anxiety, and Stress scores with exact severity bands and safety context.

A hospital stay after emergency care can leave distress that is not fully visible before discharge. The Hospital Mental Health Risk Screen (HMHRS) is a ten-item self-report measure developed to identify U.S. hospital patients who may be more likely to have posttraumatic stress, depression, or anxiety symptoms two months after a recent injury or acute illness.

Studied population
U.S. patients hospitalized after emergency care for injury or acute illness.
Predicted outcome
Group-level risk of mental health problems in the next few months, especially symptoms measured two months after trauma.
Interpretation boundary
Not a diagnosis, suicide-risk judgment, treatment decision, or certain outcome for one person.

The questions cover experiences that can shape later mental health risk, including unfair treatment, earlier anxiety or depression that interfered with enjoyment, isolation in hospital, acute stress, unreality, self-criticism, loss of positive feeling, pessimism, heightened alertness, and expectations about coping during the next month. Their recall periods differ on purpose. Some ask about day-to-day life or the past, most ask about the current hospital stay, and one looks ahead.

Higher totals indicate greater later risk in the studied hospital population. The VA score explainer reports that 15% of people in the Low range, 44% in the Medium range, and 81% in the High range had mental health problems two months later. Those are observed group percentages, not personal probabilities or guarantees.

Context matters as much as the number. The VA says the measure has not been evaluated in other countries or in other recent-trauma populations, and it is intended for qualified health professionals and researchers. A Low result cannot dismiss current distress or urgent safety concerns, while a Medium or High result calls for appropriate follow-up rather than a diagnosis from the screen alone.

How to Use This Tool:

Use the official wording during the relevant hospital context and answer every item before interpreting the total.

  1. Select Begin assessment, then answer each prompt using the response that best matches its stated time period. Do not force every question into one recall window.
  2. Use Previous when an answer needs correction. Finish assessment becomes the meaningful endpoint only after all ten responses are present.
  3. Read the risk range before the numeric total. A score of 10 enters the Medium range, and a score of 16 enters the High range.
  4. Open Answer review to verify the response behind each contribution. The optional review order and contribution detail change presentation only; they do not change scoring.

Interpreting Results:

The total is a risk-screen result for a specific hospital population. Scores from 0 through 9 are Low, 10 through 15 are Medium, and 16 through 41 are High. Both 10 and 16 belong to the higher range that begins at that boundary.

  • Low means the score is below the VA elevated-risk cutoff. It does not rule out symptoms, impairment, or a need for support.
  • Medium meets the elevated-risk cutoff and supports timely follow-up with a qualified health professional.
  • High indicates the greatest risk range in the VA explainer, not that a disorder is certain or already diagnosed.

Technical Details:

HMHRS scoring is a direct sum with no reverse-scored items, subscales, weights, or normalization. Item 1 uses six responses scored 0 through 5. Items 2 through 10 each use five responses scored 0 through 4. All ten items must be answered, giving an integer total from 0 through 41.

Formula Core:

Each selected response contributes its displayed score directly to the total.

S = ∑ i=1 10 xi

S is the HMHRS total, and xi is the score attached to item i. For example, contributions of 5, 4, 1, and seven zeros sum to 10, which is the first Medium score.

Part Scoring rule Range
Item 1 Never = 0 through Almost every day or more = 5 0 to 5
Items 2 to 10 None of the time = 0 through More than half of the time = 4 0 to 4 each
Total Unweighted sum after all ten items are complete 0 to 41

Rule Core:

Risk range Inclusive total Observed with mental health problems two months later
Low 0 to 9 15%
Medium 10 to 15 44%
High 16 to 41 81%

Limitations and Privacy:

HMHRS is a predictive screen, not a clinical diagnosis or a substitute for immediate safety assessment. Its percentages describe studied groups and should not be applied as an individual forecast outside the population and setting in which the measure was evaluated.

  • Use clinical judgment and current symptoms, functioning, history, support, and safety information alongside the score.
  • Responses remain in the current browser tab, are not placed in a shareable URL, and are cleared when a new session starts.
  • Anyone in immediate danger or crisis should use local emergency or crisis services rather than wait for a screening result.

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