Chitavi, S. O., Patrianakos, J., Williams, S. C., Schmaltz, S. P., Ahmedani, B. K., Roaten, K., Boudreaux, E. D., & Brown, G. K.

The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. 2024 Feb 23.

2024

Hospital

Hospital (HAP)

Not applicable

No

To determine the degree to which specific discharge and post-discharge suicide prevention practices have been implemented among Joint Commission–accredited hospitals in the United States and to understand challenges and barriers to implementation.

Cross-Sectional Study

This cross-sectional observational study explored the prevalence of suicide prevention activities among Joint Commission–accredited hospitals. A questionnaire was sent to 1,148 accredited hospitals with a 30.1% response rate (n=346). The authors calculated the percentage of hospitals reporting implementation of four recommended discharge practices for suicide prevention and their specified components.

The majority (n = 212 [61.3%]) of hospitals had implemented formal safety planning, but few of those (n = 41 [19.3%]) included all key components of safety planning. Approximately a third of hospitals provided a warm handoff to outpatient care (n = 128 [37.0%)] or made follow-up contact with patients (n = 105 [30.3%]), and approximately a quarter (n = 97 [28.0%]) developed a plan for lethal means safety. Very few (n = 14 [4.0%]) hospitals met full criteria for implementing recommended suicide prevention activities at time of discharge.

2022

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38538500/

suicide prevention, hospital discharge, NPSG.15.01.01

Neutral