What’s New in the Patient Safety World
December 2011
Columbia-Suicide
Severity Rating Scale
Recently we
discussed suicide risk assessment tools and resources (see our September 27,
2011 Patient Safety Tip of the Week “The
Canadian Suicide Risk Assessment Guide”). Now another new suicide risk
assessement tool, the Columbia-Suicide
Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), has been demonstrated to be valid in
several different patient populations.
The tools actually
come in multiple
versions (eg. a “lifetime” version, a “since last visit” version, a “risk
assessment version”, pediatric versions, and versions for patients in clinical
trials, etc.). They studied the validity of the C-SSRS in 3 separate patient
populations and demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity for suicidal
behavior.
This appears to be a simple-to-use but very valuable tool in assessing the potential risk for suicide.
Some of our prior columns on preventing hospital suicides:
· January 6, 2009 Patient Safety Tip of the Week “Preventing Inpatient Suicides”
· February 9, 2010 Patient Safety Tip of the Week “More on Preventing Inpatient Suicides”
·
March 16, 2010 Patient
Safety Tip of the Week “A
Patient Safety Scavenger Hunt”
· December 2010 What’s New in the Patient Safety World column “Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert on Suicide Risk Outside Psych Units”
· September 27, 2011 Patient Safety Tip of the Week “The Canadian Suicide Risk Assessment Guide”
Reference:
Posner K, Brown GK, Stanley B, et al. The Columbia–Suicide Severity Rating Scale: Initial Validity and Internal Consistency Findings From Three Multisite Studies With Adolescents and Adults. Am J Psychiatry 2011; 10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.10111704
Published online November 8, 2011
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleID=180115
C-SSRS scales for clinical practice.
http://www.cssrs.columbia.edu/scales_practice_cssrs.html
http://www.patientsafetysolutions.com/
What’s New in the Patient Safety World Archive