By Walter F. Roche Jr.
An unnamed nurse practitioner at a Veterans Administration facility in Pittsburgh failed to perform a risk assessment on a veteran with a history of suicide attempts and who, subsequently, did kill himself.
That finding was just one of a series of failures by the healthcare worker cited in a 38-page report from the VA Inspector General.
The 78-year old veteran was just one of eight patients with suicidal ideations, who were not given suicide risk assessments by the nurse, the report states.
"For unclear reasons the (nurse) BHNP failed to document suicide risk assessments," the report states, adding that if the assessments had been performed it might have resulted in different interventions.
Other deficiencies by the nurse included failing to get proper informed consent from patients being treated with anti-psychotic medications and failure to inform patients of possible side effects.
Very little information on the the patient who committed suicide was provided except the fact that he had a prior history of suicide attempts and that he had been charged with killing "a significant other."
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