Joint Commission issues suggestions for reducing suicides in healthcare
Healthcare Life Safety Compliance, January 1, 2018
This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Healthcare Life Safety Compliance.
It appears that The Joint Commission is making good on its pledge to help reduce the number of suicides and suicide attempts in U.S. hospitals.
Following an acknowledgement that suicide is the 10th leading cause of death, claiming more lives than traffic accidents and more than twice as many as homicides, the accreditor issued Sentinel Alert #56: Detecting and Treating Suicide Ideation in All Settings in February 2016 as a way of bringing attention to the problem.
As of March 1, 2016, The Joint Commission ordered its surveyors to immediately start placing more emphasis on the prevention of suicides in hospitals; the accreditor will start paying close attention especially to the assessment of potential ligature (hanging) injuries, suicide, and self-harm monitoring, particularly in psychiatric hospitals and inpatient psychiatric patient areas in general hospitals.
The added emphasis on suicide comes at a time of national concern about hospital suicides and was meant to dovetail with the “Zero Suicide” campaign, an effort by several national outreach groups to eliminate suicide in U.S. healthcare facilities, according to Joint Commission literature.
This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Healthcare Life Safety Compliance.
Related Products
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Don't forget the three checks in medication administration
- CDC alert: Screen for international travel as Ebola cases increase
- Note similarities and differences between HCPCS, CPT® codes
- Q&A: Primary, principal, and secondary diagnoses
- Complications from immobility by body system
- Differentiate between types of wound debridement
- Nursing responsibilities for managing pain
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- Practice the six rights of medication administration
- The consequences of an incomplete medical record
- E-mailed
-
- CDC alert: Screen for international travel as Ebola cases increase
- Capturing start and stop times for infusions
- Differentiate between types of wound debridement
- Performing a SWOT analysis
- Life Safety Code Q&A: Ambulatory care soiled utility room
- Leadership training for charge nurses
- Helping Charge Nurses understand their leadership role (Part 2 of 3)
- Five ways to safeguard your patients' valuables
- Developing a Fall-Prevention Program
- Coding, billing, and documentation tips for teaching physicians, interns, residents, and students
- Searched