Hospitals seldom follow all recommended suicide-prevention practices

Hospitals have not implemented many of the recommended and more robust practices to prevent suicide after discharging at-risk patients, a study found. Published this week in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, the authors concluded hospitals may lack knowledge on how to implement these practices successfully and may benefit from broader dissemination of standardized protocols on preventing suicides. Funded by Pew Charitable Trusts, the study evaluated four suicide prevention activities following hospital discharge at 346 Joint Commission-accredited hospitals: formal safety planning, planning for lethal means safety, a medical professional introducing a patient to a behavioral health clinician and initiating contact before discharge, and making follow-up contact after discharge. Only 4% of hospitals implemented all four recommended activities. (Joint Commission news release, 3/12/24)