The Door Switch’s new design now retrofits on double acting doors.

• Low Profile Design
• Increased Pressure Sensitivity
• Smarter design includes use of resistors without compromising switch sensitivity on ends

Stephanie Woodcock (left), of The Door Switch, demonstrates an anti-ligature, over-the-door sensor with an alarm that offers a unique degree of patient safety to NAPHS Executive Committee and Board member Joey Jacobs (left), chairman, CEO, and president, Psychiatric Solutions, Inc.

The Door Switch is featured in the updated 2010 Design Guide distributed by NAPHS.

Images of our display at the Conference

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During her 20 plus years of nursing, she describes her reaction to a patients’ suicide under her care and how “it is the worst thing that can happen in this profession.” She adds that The Door Switch, an anti-ligature device, helps her “do her job” and adds an “extra layer of protection” for her patients.

In the article Designing for Behavioral Health Facilities authors Sine and Hunt explain the unique design requirements of behavioral health facilities as opposed to other medical facilities. They emphasize that facilities should avoid an institutional look and be made to look as residential as possible for the comfort of the patient.

Reduction of patient suicide is now a National Patient Safety Goal of The Joint Commission.

Behavioral health facilities also have to create an environment that takes into consideration the intelligence and creativity of their patients. Authors state that these patients can be committed to finding a way to end their lives or harm themselves in spite of the best efforts of professional clinicians and designers. Because of The Door Switch’s streamlined look, it goes largely unnoticed to the patient and is not easily tampered with.

In the article Inpatient Suicides: Recommendations for Prevention published by the Joint Commission in 1998, we see the first mention of inpatient suicide being a problem. Two years prior to this article, The Joint Commission started sending out “Sentinel Event Alerts” to bring awareness to adverse events in the medical field. This was the 7th of over 40 issues that have currently been released by The Joint Commission.

Since The Joint Commission enacted its Sentinel Event Policy two years ago, the accreditation committee of The Joint Commission’s Board of Commissioners has has reviewed 65 cases related to inpatient suicides.

In this issue, experts recommend that organizations examine their environment of care to make sure that patients do not have access to items that could be considered harmful to them. They also state that in “75 percent of the cases, the method of suicide was a hanging in a bathroom, bedroom or closet.”

In the article Safety Goals for Behavioral Health, The Joint Commission explains that patients risk for suicide is a concern and hospitals should address this concern.  This is a one of 15 top safety goals that the Joint Commission’s advisory group has listed a top priority issue to address.

The purpose of the National Patient Safety Goals is to improve patient safety. The Goals focus on problems in health care safety and how to solve them.

Each year, an advisory group – made up of experienced physicians, nurses, pharmacists, risk managers and nurses – reviews hospital data about “sentinel events” and advises The Joint Commission on the safety concerns they see in the filed. Inpatient Suicide is one of these “sentinel events” and is emphasized as a concern by The Joint Commission.  Hospitals have to find safety measures to comply with this goal in order to pass inspection and keep their certification by The Joint Commission.

Suicide prevention in psychiatric facilities present a unique set of problems. While no facility can be entirely safe and risk free, the majority of persons who attempt suicide suffer from a treatable mental disorder. Inpatients of psychiatric facilities are therefore considered high-risk: The environment should avoid physical hazards.

Probably the most important design feature of a psychiatric hospital or unit is maximizing visual observation of patients from the nurse station…

In the article Common Mistakes in Designing Psychiatric Facilities James M. Hunt discusses common pitfalls and the hurdles faced in planning the design of the environment and specifying equipment in a psychiatric facility.