Patient safety event taxonomies provide a standardized framework for data classification and analysis. This taxonomy for inpatient psychiatric care was developed from existing literature, national standards, and content experts to align with the common formats used by the institution’s event reporting system. Four domains (provision of care, patient actions, environment/equipment, and safety culture) were identified, along with categories, subcategories, and subcategory details.

Researchers reviewed 15 years of root cause analysis reports of all instances of suicide and suicide attempts on Veterans Health Administration (VHA) grounds. Forty-seven suicides or suicide attempts were identified, and primary root causes included communication breakdown and a need for improved suicide interventions. The paper includes recommended actions to address the root causes of attempted and completed patient suicides.

Prior research has found that patients who die by suicide often had recent contact with the healthcare setting. Based on a multi-year chart review at one institution, the authors concluded that suicide risk assessment and documentation in the heath record to be insufficient. The authors outline quality improvement recommendations focused on improving documentation, suicide assessment and intervention training, and improving communications with families, caregivers, and other health care providers.

Patient suicide in all settings is considered a never event. Nurses caring for the patient may experience negative psychological symptoms following inpatient suicide. This review identified five themes based on nurses’ psychological experiences: emotional experience, cognitive experience, coping strategies, self-reflection, and impact on self and practice. Hospital administrators should develop education and support programs to help nurses cope in the aftermath of inpatient suicide.  

This study used qualitative methods to understand the experiences of former psychiatric patients that nursing staff considered challenging and that resulted in behavior management interventions (e.g., aggression, self-harm, inappropriate sexual behavior). Interviewed patients cited various reasons for these challenging behaviors, including communication difficulties related to their psychiatric symptoms, stressful feelings such as frustration and fear, coercive nursing culture and restrictive nursing practices. Strategies for managing these behaviors are discussed, as well as core competencies for delivering care based on patients’ needs.

After findings of gross negligence, the National Health Service (NHS) introduced ‘Freedom to Speak Up Guardians’ to lead safety culture change with the ultimate goal that speaking up about safety issues becomes the norm. The authors used semi-structured interviews with 51 individuals (e.g., Guardians, clinicians, policymakers/regulators, etc.) to describe the rollout of the Guardians. These interviews revealed that the role of the Guardians is rich in potential but that the initial narrow role of addressing only quality and safety concerns was not consistent with the myriad of complex issues brought to them and may indicate the need to expand the role definition.

Suicide in all settings is considered a sentinel event. This commentary describes an aspirational suicide eradication program. The approach combines direct identification of suicidal behavior and treatment, system-focused process improvements, and organizational safety culture as interdependent strategies for eliminating suicide. A previous WebM&M commentary discussed a suicide attempt on an inpatient medical unit.

Establishing a culture of safety within health care organizations requires strong leadership support. This cross-sectional survey study of nurses, allied health professionals, and unit clerks working in the inpatient setting at a single hospital found that positive perceptions of senior leadership support for safety and positive perceptions of teamwork were associated with positive perceptions of patient safety. In addition, when staff perceived senior leadership support for safety to be lacking, the positive impact of direct managerial leadership on staff perceptions of patient safety was more pronounced.

Prior research has shown that numerous factors may impact patient safety in the inpatient psychiatry setting. In this study involving 4371 patients admitted to 14 inpatient psychiatric units at acute care general hospitals, researchers found that older patients and those with longer length of stay were at increased risk for adverse events and medical errors.

Effective apology behaviors improve opportunities for error resolution for clinicians, patients, and families. This commentary highlights the importance of expressing empathy, considering legal implications, and demonstrating individual, leadership, and organizational support of open disclosure.

The Joint Commission identifies inpatient suicide as a sentinel event. Little is known about the epidemiology of hospital suicides other than that they are rare and occur mostly in psychiatry wards. Researchers examined two national databases to develop the first data-driven appraisal of hospital suicide rates. Nationally, between 49 and 65 hospital suicides occur each year. Nearly 75% happen during psychiatric treatment, and the most common means of death is hanging. This hospital suicide rate is an order of magnitude lower than prior estimates. An accompanying editorial raises concerns about the much larger epidemic of suicide immediately after psychiatric hospital discharge. A prior WebM&M commentary highlighted additional strategies to reduce hospital suicide risk.

Incident reporting systems are widely implemented in health care systems, but they are often underutilized by clinicians. This institution implemented a psychiatry-specific incident reporting tool. Researchers found that physicians submitted more incident reports but there was no significant change in how many serious harm events were identified. An Annual Perspective described the challenges in measuring and responding to serious patient harm.

A number of studies have shown that incident reporting systems only capture a small proportion of suspected adverse events in hospitals. Conducted in inpatient psychiatric units at Veterans Affairs hospitals, the study found that only a minority of adverse events identified through chart review were voluntarily reported by clinicians. A recent commentary discussed the inherent limitations of incident reporting systems and suggested ways to optimize their utility.

Medication errors represent a significant source of patient harm, and patients with mental health diagnoses may be particularly vulnerable. This systematic review found that medication errors and adverse drug events in mental health hospitals are common.

This review of root cause analysis reports about suicide within 7 days of discharge from inpatient mental health facilities determined that most cases of suicide occurred prior to scheduled outpatient postdischarge follow-up. Many patients who went on to die by suicide left against medical advice but did not meet criteria to be held against their wishes, highlighting the conflict between safety and patient autonomy.

Multiple studies have documented that patients with various conditions admitted over the weekend have worse outcomes than those admitted on a weekday. This large retrospective study did not find any difference in inpatient mortality for patients admitted to a psychiatric ward on the weekend. However, these patients had shorter admissions and were more likely to be readmitted, and the authors felt that these findings were most likely attributable to inherent differences in the types of psychiatric patients admitted on weekends.

Medication errors are common in mental health care. This survey of nurses and nursing students identified interruptions and insufficient medication knowledge as major barriers to ensuring medication safety in outpatient mental health.