Inpatient suicide prevention: promoting a culture and system of safety over 30 years of practice

In April 2012, the Joint Commission (JC) report noted that psychiatric hospitals were the most frequent setting for a sentinel event. In 2010-12, suicide was among the top 5 causes of a sentinel event and was a more frequent cause of sentinel events than medication errors. Suicide was ranked as the 10th leading cause of death among persons 10 years of age and older, accounting for 36,891 deaths in 2009. Previous research on suicide has focused on patient evaluation, disease management, symptom assessment, and the use of risk prevention tools, but few publications have reported on system-wide integrated approaches to successful suicide prevention. In this article on inpatient suicide prevention, I present the successful strategies based on epidemiological findings that have been used in one institution to reduce inpatient suicide risk. This report covers strategies that have been used for over 32 years in the treatment of more than 60,000 patients. The successful prevention efforts described in this article involved staff training and deployment, thorough patient assessment, environmental protections, complete handouts, and patient care protocols.