Psych ward video cameras could save lives, suggests report after hospital bathroom suicide of Glenn Piche

Installing video cameras in all rooms at psychiatric facilities could help prevent patient suicides, says an Alberta fatality inquiry's report.

The report comes four years afterGlennPiche,a 49-year-old father to four daughters,was found hanging from a bed sheet tied to his bathroom door just one day after being admitted to 5-North, the psychiatric unit atMedicine Hat Regional Hospital.

• 'It was supposed to be safe': Family questions man's suicide in psych ward as inquiry begins

Upon hearing of his death, Piche's family wondered why their loved one, who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had threatened suicide in the past, was left alone at all.

'It's supposed to be safe, and it wasn't for him,' says Glenn Piche's daughter Kimberly

7 years ago

Duration 0:39

An Alberta family is still seeking answers four years after the hospital psych ward suicide of Glenn Piche.

Athree-day fatality inquiry was held in May to find answers to those questions.

Accountability

The ensuing report recommends that surveillance cameras be installed in all psychiatric unit roomsat 5-North because "the safety of the patients is more important than the privacy issues that might be argued."

It's one that Piche's sister-in-law Julie Pichebelieves would have saved his life.

"Because there's no way he would have gotten away with, they would have seen him making a noose," she said.

Julie argues the cameras would also be effective in ensuring staff are accountable.

"I mean, they're going to be on these cameras, right, so when they go in and check in on the patient are they really checking them or are they just you know popping their head in?So they have to be accountable for what they do as well," she said.

Cameras in seclusion rooms

Past inquiries have made the same recommendation, but Alberta Health Services has not implemented it, notes the report.

"I understand from our team there are some areas that we've done a lot of work in, things like looking at the environment, looking at policies and those sorts of things," said Katherine Chubbs,the chiefzone officer for the south zone with AHS.

"And there are some areas, perhaps not having the conversation, that there will be more opportunities going foward."

According to the inquiry,each of 5-North's five seclusion rooms intended for high-risk patients is already equipped with video cameras.

Monitoring phone calls

The report makes eight other non-binding recommendations to improve psychiatric patient safety.

• Read the full report here

Among those is the recommendation that nurses overseeing patient care on the psychiatric unit should, "on a case-by-case basis, monitor the patient's use of the patient phone and be able to determine the limitation, if any, to be placed on a patient's use of the phone."

This recommendation stems from evidence thatPiche used the patient phone repeatedly during his stay in 5-North, and that,at least once, the nurse noticed he was extremely upset after his phone call was completed.

Faster access to patient records

The report also recommends that all records at the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital be put in electronic form as quickly as is reasonably possible so that doctors can make timely and proper medical assessments.

It also recommends that attending psychiatrists receive all on-site patient recordswithin four hours of admitting a new psychiatric patient.

During the inquiry, court was told thatthe Piche's attending psychiatrist, Dr. Aditi Patel, asked for Piche's medical records the day he arrived. But Patel still had not received themby the time Pichetook his own life on June 20, 2013.

If those files had been made available to her, she would have seen a series of suicidal attempts and threats dating back to 2003, including two earlier stays at the hospital in 2013, one in March, and the other only two weeks before his last admission.

Instead, Patel told the court, she relied on the information she had at hand, which was that Piche's family said he was suicidalbut that Piche adamantly denied that.

"He thought that these were false accusationsand he had no intention of hurting himself and he should be able to leave,"Patel said.

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