A study published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety examined hospital inpatient suicides in the U.S. and the methods used.
Researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis of data from 27 states reporting to the National Violent Death Reporting System for 2014–15 and data from hospitals reporting to The Joint Commission's Sentinel Event Database from 2010-17.
The study shows, based on data reported in the NVDRS during 2014–15, it is estimated that between 48.5 and 64.9 hospital inpatient suicides occur per year in the U.S. Of those, 31 to 51.7 involve psychiatric inpatients.
According to both NVDRS and SE databases, hanging was the most common method of inpatient suicide.
"The estimated number of hospital inpatient suicides per year in the United States ranges from 48.5 to 64.9, which is far below the widely cited figure of 1,500 per year," researchers concluded.