This exploratory systematic review aimed to describe the state of the research on patient safety in inpatient mental health settings. Authors included 364 papers, representing 31 countries and data from over 150,000 participants. The existing research base was categorized into ten broad safety categories – interpersonal violence, coercive interventions, safety culture, harm to self, safety of the physical environment, medication safety, unauthorized leave, clinical decision making, falls, and infection prevention/control; papers were of varying quality with the majority of papers assessed as “fair”. The authors note that several areas of patient safety in inpatient mental health are particularly understudied, such as suicide, as the review only yielded one study meeting inclusion criteria.
Karlamangla S. Los Angeles Times. December 1, 2019.
Patient suicide is considered a sentinel event. This feature shares an examination of approximately 100 preventable deaths in the State of California over a decade. An examination of the case records identified breakdowns in care processes such as lack of training, low staffing and human error.
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