Objective: Emergency departments (EDs) are well positioned to deliver suicide prevention services. This study examined hospital and community correlates of recommended practices.
Methods: This study examined results from a national survey of ED nursing directors (N=513) focusing on hospital- and community-level variation in the routine provision of four recommended practices: suicide risk screening, access to means assessment, safety planning, and follow-up referrals.
Results: Few significant differences existed between hospitals that routinely provided these practices and hospitals that did not. Routine scheduling of follow-up appointments was associated with presence of formal contractual relationships with outpatient mental health facilities (p=0.005). Routine provision of safety planning was associated with higher levels of psychiatrist or psychologist staffing (p=0.032).
Conclusions: There were few differences in the hospital and community characteristics between EDs that routinely provided recommended care and those that did not, suggesting few structural barriers to implementation of these recommended services for high-risk ED patients.
Keywords: Assessment-psychiatric; Emergency psychiatry; Suicide and self-destructive behavior; Treatment assessment and planning.