BANGOR, Maine — An investigation is underway at Eastern Maine Medical Center into a patient’s death by suicide earlier this month.
The hospital reported the death to a state licensing board and a state program that tracks health care safety issues, according to an EMMC spokeswoman.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that investigators are reviewing the death.
“It is a federal investigation and we cannot release any details at this time,” DHHS spokeswoman Samantha Edwards wrote in an email.
EMMC also declined to release further information, including the date of the incident, the patient’s name or how the death occurred, citing respect for the family and health care privacy laws.
“Our condolences go to the patient’s loved ones,” EMMC CEO Deborah Carey Johnson said in a statement. “EMMC takes its responsibility to protect the safety and privacy of its patients and visitors very seriously.”
Suicides are an uncommon but growing concern for hospitals. Earlier this year, the Joint Commission, a major hospital accreditation organization, warned that it received nearly 1,100 reports of suicides in health care settings between 2010 and 2014.
Maine recorded one instance in 2014, though the circumstances were unclear because it was classified as either a “patient suicide, attempted suicide or self-harm resulting in serious injury.”
In prior years, Maine hospitals typically reported fewer than five suicides or attempted suicides. But 2010 was an outlier, with 11 such reports.
Hospitals must inform the state when patients are seriously harmed during the course of their care, but DHHS does not identify those hospitals publicly.
According to the Joint Commission, about 5 percent of accredited hospitals failed in 2014 to meet its recommended practices for identifying patients at risk of suicide. It encourages hospitals to review each patient’s history, screen all patients for thoughts of suicide, and review screening questionnaires before patients are discharged, among other steps.
