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Is Healthcare Responsibility in Patients’ Suicide Provable Beyond all Reasonable Doubt? An Analysis of Preventing Strategies and Medical Liability Through a Case Series

As a result of the duty of care, the healthcare professional has an obligation of surveillance towards the patients that are under their treatment. According to that principle, the Italian Criminal Supreme Court declared a guilty sentence in many cases of psychiatric patients’ suicide, recognizing t...

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Autores principales: Turco, Sara, Gori, Federica, Papi, Luigi, Dell’Osso, Liliana, Carpita, Barbara, Maiese, Aniello, Turillazzi, Emanuela, Di Paolo, Marco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Giovanni Fioriti Editore srl 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9597645/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36340271
http://dx.doi.org/10.36131/cnfioritieditore20220506
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author Turco, Sara
Gori, Federica
Papi, Luigi
Dell’Osso, Liliana
Carpita, Barbara
Maiese, Aniello
Turillazzi, Emanuela
Di Paolo, Marco
author_facet Turco, Sara
Gori, Federica
Papi, Luigi
Dell’Osso, Liliana
Carpita, Barbara
Maiese, Aniello
Turillazzi, Emanuela
Di Paolo, Marco
author_sort Turco, Sara
collection PubMed
description As a result of the duty of care, the healthcare professional has an obligation of surveillance towards the patients that are under their treatment. According to that principle, the Italian Criminal Supreme Court declared a guilty sentence in many cases of psychiatric patients’ suicide, recognizing the criminal liability of the healthcare personnel. This is true not only for suicides occurred inside the hospital, but also for the suicide of psychiatric outpatients. Only in a few cases, the Italian Supreme Court acquitted the healthcare personnel. This happened when it was recognized that the suicide event was unavoidable. Despite the fact that suicide risk is often unpredictable, this does not exclude medical liability. In this work we examine the judicial aspects of five cases of suicide of psychiatric patients, considering whether different preventive strategies could have been effective in preventing the suicide event. This work aims to understand whether the suicide of psychiatric patient is effectively preventable and – referring to healthcare responsibility under penal judgment – if that could be proven beyond all reasonable doubt.
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spelling pubmed-95976452022-11-04 Is Healthcare Responsibility in Patients’ Suicide Provable Beyond all Reasonable Doubt? An Analysis of Preventing Strategies and Medical Liability Through a Case Series Turco, Sara Gori, Federica Papi, Luigi Dell’Osso, Liliana Carpita, Barbara Maiese, Aniello Turillazzi, Emanuela Di Paolo, Marco Clin Neuropsychiatry Perspective Paper As a result of the duty of care, the healthcare professional has an obligation of surveillance towards the patients that are under their treatment. According to that principle, the Italian Criminal Supreme Court declared a guilty sentence in many cases of psychiatric patients’ suicide, recognizing the criminal liability of the healthcare personnel. This is true not only for suicides occurred inside the hospital, but also for the suicide of psychiatric outpatients. Only in a few cases, the Italian Supreme Court acquitted the healthcare personnel. This happened when it was recognized that the suicide event was unavoidable. Despite the fact that suicide risk is often unpredictable, this does not exclude medical liability. In this work we examine the judicial aspects of five cases of suicide of psychiatric patients, considering whether different preventive strategies could have been effective in preventing the suicide event. This work aims to understand whether the suicide of psychiatric patient is effectively preventable and – referring to healthcare responsibility under penal judgment – if that could be proven beyond all reasonable doubt. Giovanni Fioriti Editore srl 2022-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9597645/ /pubmed/36340271 http://dx.doi.org/10.36131/cnfioritieditore20220506 Text en © 2022 Giovanni Fioriti Editore s.r.l. This is an open access article. Distribution and reproduction are permitted in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
spellingShingle Perspective Paper
Turco, Sara
Gori, Federica
Papi, Luigi
Dell’Osso, Liliana
Carpita, Barbara
Maiese, Aniello
Turillazzi, Emanuela
Di Paolo, Marco
Is Healthcare Responsibility in Patients’ Suicide Provable Beyond all Reasonable Doubt? An Analysis of Preventing Strategies and Medical Liability Through a Case Series
title Is Healthcare Responsibility in Patients’ Suicide Provable Beyond all Reasonable Doubt? An Analysis of Preventing Strategies and Medical Liability Through a Case Series
title_full Is Healthcare Responsibility in Patients’ Suicide Provable Beyond all Reasonable Doubt? An Analysis of Preventing Strategies and Medical Liability Through a Case Series
title_fullStr Is Healthcare Responsibility in Patients’ Suicide Provable Beyond all Reasonable Doubt? An Analysis of Preventing Strategies and Medical Liability Through a Case Series
title_full_unstemmed Is Healthcare Responsibility in Patients’ Suicide Provable Beyond all Reasonable Doubt? An Analysis of Preventing Strategies and Medical Liability Through a Case Series
title_short Is Healthcare Responsibility in Patients’ Suicide Provable Beyond all Reasonable Doubt? An Analysis of Preventing Strategies and Medical Liability Through a Case Series
title_sort is healthcare responsibility in patients’ suicide provable beyond all reasonable doubt? an analysis of preventing strategies and medical liability through a case series
topic Perspective Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9597645/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36340271
http://dx.doi.org/10.36131/cnfioritieditore20220506
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