Inpatient suicide: preventing a common sentinel event.
OBJECTIVE
Suicide in the hospital is one of the most common types of sentinel events, and hospitals can (and should) take steps to decrease the likelihood of experiencing this type of crisis.


METHODS
MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, National Electronic Library for Mental Health, and PSYCHINFO searches were conducted. In addition, manual and phone queries were used to identify relevant empirical and clinical publications. Reference sections of published articles were also searched.


RESULTS
The current article discusses the rates of suicide in hospitals, related risk factors, methods of suicidal behavior, and factors which contribute to this tragic event. Environmental, patient care, staff training, and hospital policy recommendations for decreasing the number of inpatient suicides are presented.


CONCLUSIONS
Inpatient suicide is a traumatic event. Although it is a relatively rare occurrence that is often difficult to predict and prevent, continuing to refine our efforts to assist the population at risk is imperative.
Tishler
Carl L
CL
Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. tishler.1@osu.edu
Reiss
Natalie Staats
NS
D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006291:Health Policy; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*