In 2010, the Joint Commission (JC) issued a Sentinel Event Alert highlighting the need to detect suicide risk in all non-behavioral patients in medical settings. Detecting suicide risk among medical patients is important because this population is at elevated risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and because for many of these patients, a medical visit is their only portal into mental health services. Of note, the vast majority of people who die by suicide visit a medical setting, such as an inpatient oncology unit, more frequently than a psychiatric setting in the months leading up to their death. Thus, the inpatient medical setting is an important stakeholder in decreasing suicide-related morbidity and mortality. Physicians and nurses working in non-mental health settings require tools to guide them in recognizing patients at risk. Nonetheless, there are currently no suicide screening instruments designed specifically for assessing suicide risk in an adult inpatient medical population.