Charting and Checking for Suicidality in a Family Medicine Residency Clinic

Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States, and many individuals who die by suicide are likely to have seen a primary care physician (PCP) within the month of their death. Thus, the goal of this quality improvement (QI) project was to examine suicidality documentation practices of interprofessional clinicians within a Family Medicine residency clinic, thus providing rationale for continued research and a template for other clinics to emulate. The QI project used the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle to survey 28 Family Medicine residents, faculty, and trainees for the Plan stage of the cycle in 2022 and assessed their suicidality documentation practices in the electronic medical record. Results showed discrepancies amongst clinicians, particularly clinicians of different disciplines, in how often they check charts for suicidality, where they document in the chart, and how often they discuss that information with their patients. Future studies could assess the implementation of a protocol for recording and addressing suicidality to improve patient care and safety, improve residency training and team-based care, and provide behavioral health services in primary care settings