Last week, many of my colleagues and I attended ACEP’s annual conference. Workplace violence was a recurring theme this year, both in opening remarks and educational sessions throughout the conference.
Workplace violence is a much bigger problem in healthcare settings than many people realize. In ACEP’s 2018 survey, 47 percent of polled ED physicians reported being assaulted and 71 percent reported that they had recently witnessed an assault. ACEP is an industry leader when it comes to campaigning for better awareness and protection against workplace violence in healthcare settings.
ACEP released its original policy for addressing violence in the ED in 1993. Since then, advancements have been made enabling care teams and hospital administrators to not just address, but prevent, violence in their workplace. The combined effect of implementing better security systems and alerting tools, routinely educating hospital staff, and encouraging a reporting policy and culture can have a transformative effect on reducing violence. In short, developing a proactive—not reactive—approach is key.
That’s exactly what Providence St. Peter, a 350-bed hospital in Olympia, Washington, is doing. Jackie Brown, RN, BSN, MS, CHPQ, and the Director of Critical Care and Emergency Services at Providence St. Peter presented with Neilia Kinney, RN, CEN, and Staff Nurse, on Reducing Workplace Violence Through the Use of Technology at InnovatED.
Providence St. Peter is using the Collective platform to get real-time notifications (delivered directly into existing care team workflows) when a patient with a history of violence presents at the hospital. Providence care teams are alerted for different types of security risks—including self-harm, property destruction, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, trespassing, theft, elopement, illicit drug use, and kidnap/human trafficking. Jackie and Neilia also discussed that the platform enables a proactive approach to safety, allowing care teams to develop a patient-specific care plan to manage safety concerns and communicate internally and across care settings—on a statewide and country level.
Learn more at: collectivemedical.com/workplace-safety
Erin Van Zomeren
Communications Specialist
erin.vanzomeren@collectivemedical.com
