Few hospitals are implementing all the recommended components of suicide prevention planning for post-discharge patients, a study from The Joint Comission found.
Six in 10 hospitals surveyed by The Joint Comission reported they had implemented formal safety planning to prevent suicide, according to a March 13 news release. Though the majority of hospitals had some form of safety planning, few included all of the components recommended by the commission.
Multiple studies suggest the risk of suicide is significantly higher after patients are discharged from the hospital, according to The Joint Comission.
The Joint Commission surveyed 346 accredited hospitals on four components of suicide prevention post-discharge:
- Formal safety planning
- Planning for lethal means safety
- Providing warm handoffs to outpatient care
- Making follow-up contact after discharge
Around a third of hospitals surveyed implemented handoffs to outpatient care and follow-up contact, and a quarter developed a plan for lethal means safety. Just 4% of hospitals surveyed implemented all four components.
The data indicates hospitals may be implementing some recommended practices but leaving out essential components, Salome Chitavi, PhD, a research scientist at The Joint Commission, said.
"This may suggest that there is a lack of knowledge around how to implement these practices successfully, and that hospitals may benefit from wider dissemination of standardized protocols that promote high-quality, comprehensive formal safety planning," Dr. Chitavi said.
Read the full study here.