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The Joint Commission: Comments open on proposed suicide risk NPSG through May 7

Accreditation Insider, March 27, 2018

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Wishing you could weigh in on The Joint Commission’s expectations about suicide risk? You have your chance. Through May 7, The Joint Commission is accepting comment on proposed revisions to National Patient Safety Goal 15 on reducing the risk of patient self-harm.

The Joint Commission published the revisions on its Standards Field Reviews web page on March 26. The revisions, which will require hospitals to be more proactive in removing risks from the physical environment, include proposed changes to both the general Hospital and the Behavioral Health Care accreditations programs.

Under the Hospital Accreditation program, a revised Element of Performance (EP) 1 applies only to hospitals, whereas the rest of the now seven EPs — up from just three — will apply only to those patients in psychiatric hospitals or being treated for behavioral health problems in general hospitals, according to the field review information.

The other EPs for both programs outline expectations of conducting suicide assessment of patients, documenting a patient’s risk and the plan to deal with that patient’s suicidal ideation, the need for written policies and procedures and quality monitoring of the programs, among other things.

You can comment on the proposed revisions online or by mail. To read the full set of revisions, and for links and instructions on how to comment, go to the Field Reviews page, https://www.jointcommission.org/standards_information/field_reviews.aspx. — A.J. Plunkett (aplunkett@h3.group)
 

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