Electrocardiographic surveillance in a psychiatric institution: avoiding iatrogenic cardiovascular death.

Objective: To describe a new initiative developed to optimise patient safety in a mental health setting in order to prevent serious cardiac events.

Materials And Methods: A longitudinal study of all in-patients admitted at the hospital, comprised of 197 beds distributed among three units, was conducted for 12 months. All admitted patients at the hospital underwent electrocardiogram surveillance, as it was described in our new local guideline for sudden cardiac death prevention.