Suicide and Other Risk Monitoring in Inpatient Psychiatry

Abstract

This article describes the development and implementation of a new tool for suicide and other monitoring for inpatient psychiatry. The tool provides a telemetry-like representation of the patient’s risk based on clinical observations of his or her behavior during and across shifts. The tool represents an increase in the sophistication of the information collected for patients on suicide and other precautions. A variation of the tool is adapted to monitoring lower risk patients at less frequent time intervals. This allows for consistency of conceptualization and documentation about risk and consequently fits into an overall documentation approach for psychiatric inpatient care. The limitations of the previously used monitoring tool and procedures previously used are described. Potential application of the tool to nonpsychiatric medical settings is briefly discussed.