Patient Suicide on a Locked Mental Health Unit at the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center, Florida. | AHRQ Patient Safety Network

Patient Suicide on a Locked Mental Health Unit at the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center, Florida. | AHRQ Patient Safety Network

• Book/Report
 
• Published August 2019

Patient Suicide on a Locked Mental Health Unit at the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center, Florida.

Washington, DC: Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General. August 22, 2019. Report No. 19-07429-195.

Hospitalized patient suicide is a sentinel event. This report describes an investigation into a patient suicide incident in the Veterans Affairs health system that found numerous conditions that contributed to the event, such as nonoperational security cameras, ineffective rounding policy, and lack of leadership knowledge of safety practices in mental health units. Recommendations for improvement include staff education, standardization of rounding, and robust oversight of frontline practice.

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