Healthcare Safety Toolkit Library

The Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale is provided in a brief version as a suicide risk screening tool. This short version rating scale assesses patients at risk for suicde that may enter a setting such as the emergency room quickly identifyng patients who are actively suicidal or experience suicidal thoughts.

The Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale full version is an assessment tool that provides an in-depth evaluation for patients at risk for suicide. The full version rating scale identifies patients who are actively suicidal or experiencing suicidal thoughts in a way that is more time-consuming. This tool is best suited for an environment conducive to this type of assessment such as an inpatient psychiatric stay.

Debriefing helps healthcare providers and the patient evaluate a crisis situation and plan to avoid future episodes throughout the patient’s stay. Interventions such as debriefing with patients post-violent episodes help to prevent reoccurring violence. This resource can serve as guide through the debriefing process.

Is your organization using security officers as sitters or one-on-one observers? If so, be sure your staff are appropriately trained and competent in the tasks being delegated to them. HC Pro’s Hospital Safety Center has released an article detailing the pitfalls of such assignments.

This document provides guidelines for sitters who observe patients identified as a danger to themselves and others. The form is an education tool for sitters to make them aware of expectations while they are sitting with the patient, including when to notify the nurse immediately. These guidelines are an important resource to help maintain a safe environment of care for patients.

These guidelines describe what healthcare providers should do when a pediatric patient screens positive for suicide risk.

It is essential to understand a security program. These resources help build and sustain a security program in healthcare. Sources delve further into risk considerations of law enforcement's presence in the emergency room and guidance to infant abductions.

Although it is healthcare's goal to maintain a safe environment at all times, violence remains a significant concern today. It is vital to implement processes to prevent workplace violence. Security practices can include an array of methods. The following documents provide best practices and alternative approaches that may be applied when handling violent encounters.

Reducing the risk of encountering an active shooter situation is important to any business, especially healthcare. These resources provide tools on how to plan what to do in the event of an active shooter/violent situation.

Acitve shooter events are increasing more and more across the U.S. and the experts have developed tools to help the lay person identify a potential active shooter as a risk reduction strategy.