Healthcare workers are no strangers to burnout and suicide as many suffer from emotional exhaustion and mental and physical stress due to the demanding nature of their job, including long working hours, high-stress environments, and death in extreme cases.
On August 10, the CDC released its latest provisional suicide estimates for 2022, showing suicide deaths on the rise. There were approximately 49,499 suicide deaths in 2022, or 1,316 more than in 2021. For perspective, the...
A new CMS Quality, Safety & Oversight group memo on suicide prevention urges hospitals to go above and beyond to help protect patients from themselves. Accrediting organizations like ACHC and TJC cite resources and offer tools to help.
Like all tools, social media can be beneficial or harmful depending on how it’s used. And like all tools, when tools are used by the young, inexperienced, and unsupervised, they can cut themselves on some sharp edges. This is the crux of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) health...
A couple of fairly short (and somewhat disparate, but the risk assessment process can figure in both) items this week: one a question/thought relating to emergency management and...
The report makes the case with hard science and research that loneliness not only impacts a patient’s mental health, but their physical health as well, including:
The prevention of suicide and other forms of patient self-harm continues to be a focus of CMS and accrediting organizations (AO). While CMS does not require an environmental risk assessment, the Accreditation Commission for Health Care, The Joint Commission, and other AOs do.
Loneliness is as big a health risk as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, according to a 81-page report from the office of Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD. Released on May 2, the...
ECRI’s annual report on the top patient safety concerns facing the healthcare industry—and what to do about them—are free online. The 2023 list contains several new issues, including pediatric mental health and uncertainty in maternal-fetal care. And it has several familiar concerns, including...
