By Jeff Wardon, Jr., Assistant Editor

A 12-year-old girl died by suicide in April at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, after the hospital failed to follow safety protocols for suicidal patients, InvestigateWest reports. The girl was one of four patients put at risk this year due to lapses in supervision and required screenings. According to InvestigateWest, she had been assigned a round-the-clock sitter, but supervision was removed without explanation just days before her death. On April 13, she walked out of the pediatric unit, reached a hospital parking garage and jumped from the fourth floor. She died in the ER two hours later. 

The state found multiple violations: missed suicide screenings, unexplained removal of supervision and delayed emergency response when she went missing, InvestigateWest reports. Sacred Heart had closed its youth psychiatric unit in 2023, prompting staff concerns on accommodations for younger patients.  After the investigation began, the hospital submitted a corrective action plan and had its “immediate jeopardy” status lifted, but the Department of Health continues monitoring. 

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Surveillance technologies can help prevent on site tragedies from happening. The technology can be set up to optimize a behavioral healthcare environment by monitoring a patient’s activities and whereabouts to best protect them.  

These are best practices for patient video monitoring for suicide prevention, according to Care-View: 

• Have clear policies and procedures to identify which patients qualify for video monitoring 
• Make sure 2-way audio and an immediate escalation process for communication are indicated 
• Group monitored patients by acuity 
• Prep the room with ligature-resistant that doesn’t prevent medical care and educate the monitoring technician of all objects involved in preparing the room 
• Have a process for the monitoring technician to notify floor staff when the patient needs to use the restroom and initiate 2-way audio with the patient asking them to wait on the nurse 
• Track and measure intervention/alarm response time 
• Have nursing staff educate the patients on the use of video monitoring technology 
• Consider having trained PCAs/PCTs for a monitoring technician role 
• Monitoring must be done continuously and allow for 360-degree viewing 

Jeff Wardon, Jr., is the assistant editor of the facilities market.