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> I'm sure it's horrible and humiliating, but a) it's not torture (a word another commenter used), and b) you're admitting known-unstable people into very close quarters with doctors and nurses who will care, feed, and bathe them over the next several days/weeks.

In theory you are right. In reality, you run a huge risk of triggering a bigger problem if the patient have a sexual abuse history.

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I've been there when a suicidal person pulled a razor blade out and started trying to slash us as we were trying to take a chest x-ray after an OD with vomit inhalation. I do not believe that any search risks a bigger problem - it is lucky that no one was hurt (patient included). The later search (including x-raying the patient top to toe) found more razor blades, some internal. Edit: missed word.

Wouldn't a metal detector do the job?

Possibly, I have never used one. A razor blade is very small, and the consequences of a miss could be high so that may be a factor.

Metal detector sensitivities can be turned up to where they detect even pins in a bone. The bigger risk with the metal detector approach is sharpened plastics or glass.

> In theory you are right. In reality, you run a huge risk of triggering a bigger problem if the patient have a sexual abuse history.

Depending on the intake procedure, that can be part of the 'flowchart' to deal with.

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