increasing violence on healthcare workers

July 02, 2017, 02:11 PM

One of our PI firm's services is to provide consulting and training in workplace violence prevention for businesses. OHSHA regulations requires that employers provide a safe workplace for their employees, and negligence in this area has resulted in some significant lawsuits. That had driven much attention to the problem of workplace violence by corporations and managers, but much remains to be done. The incidence of workplace violence is much less than it was 20 years ago, but we hear about it more because of mass shootings and a 24 hour news cycle.

The health profession is in a class of it's own in terms of victimology. The Bureau of Labor compiles statistics of assaults by profession. The ratio of assaults against health care employees in general is significantly lower than other professions such as retail sales and law enforcement. But when you look more closely at the numbers, within the medical community it is mental health workers (technicians) and ER staff (nurses) who are most at risk. The irony is that they are being attacked by people they are trying to assist. A lot can be done to mitigate the risk, and an institution that fails to adhere to a standard of care to protect their employees does so at great peril of a negligence suit.

We also train security officers for their Florida Class G firearms license. Many security officers are unarmed and their pay is terrible. I am convinced that unarmed security officers will become a thing of the past within the next decade, due to the liability attached to a failure to protect employees and customers.

July 02, 2017, 02:19 PM

Dusty78

quote:
Originally posted by HayesGreener:
One of our PI firm's services is to provide consulting and training in workplace violence prevention for businesses. OHSHA regulations requires that employers provide a safe workplace for their employees, and negligence in this area has resulted in some significant lawsuits. That had driven much attention to the problem of workplace violence by corporations and managers, but much remains to be done. The incidence of workplace violence is much less than it was 20 years ago, but we hear about it more because of mass shootings and a 24 hour news cycle.

The health profession is in a class of it's own in terms of victimology. The Bureau of Labor compiles statistics of assaults by profession. The ratio of assaults against health care employees in general is significantly lower than other professions such as retail sales and law enforcement. But when you look more closely at the numbers, within the medical community it is mental health workers (technicians) and ER staff (nurses) who are most at risk. The irony is that they are being attacked by people they are trying to assist. A lot can be done to mitigate the risk, and an institution that fails to adhere to a standard of care to protect their employees does so at great peril of a negligence suit.

We also train security officers for their Florida Class G firearms license. Many security officers are unarmed and their pay is terrible. I am convinced that unarmed security officers will become a thing of the past within the next decade, due to the liability attached to a failure to protect employees and customers.

The problem with those stats is that they often rely on reporting. Most violence against healthcare workers is not reported as staff is usually detered to report them by their superiors. I know of staff that have been threatened with disciplinary action if they report something. It truly is in a class of its own. Hospitals are scared to death that having patient arrested will lead to patients going elsewhere. They will gladly pay a nurse hurt by a patient's disability claims as long as they don't get the authorities involved. If they do they will fight your at every turn. It's pretty disgusting.

July 02, 2017, 02:22 PM

old rugged cross

and the Las Vegas shooting by one of our own members. ????

Did I miss something here?

Can someone provide some info on this

July 02, 2017, 02:24 PM

12131

Re: SF member in question, one thread was locked. Another one nuked. Please, take it to email.

July 02, 2017, 02:27 PM

old rugged cross

Ok Q, thank you.

July 02, 2017, 03:15 PM

nhtagmember

healthcare is an industry, and needs to think about how it provides it services to its 'customers'

I see no good reason why EMS should respond to OD's for the 2nd or 3rd time - why waste time and resources delaying the inevitable

if hospitals took a position that when you come in here you're a guest, if you try to fuck us we will discharge you to the street and notify everyone else around and have you blackballed from any future service things might change

business and industry have always had a choice as to whom they will do business with

perhaps healthcare should do the same

oh, btw, we don't have a healthcare problem in this country - we have a legal and insurance problem

July 02, 2017, 03:44 PM

Dusty78

quote:
Originally posted by nhtagmember:
healthcare is an industry, and needs to think about how it provides it services to its 'customers'

I see no good reason why EMS should respond to OD's for the 2nd or 3rd time - why waste time and resources delaying the inevitable

if hospitals took a position that when you come in here you're a guest, if you try to fuck us we will discharge you to the street and notify everyone else around and have you blackballed from any future service things might change

business and industry have always had a choice as to whom they will do business with

perhaps healthcare should do the same

oh, btw, we don't have a healthcare problem in this country - we have a legal and insurance problem

Unfortunately federal law doesn't allow us to choose who we treat. It's the opposite actually, tread everyone or suffer severe legal and financial consequences.

July 02, 2017, 03:47 PM

tatortodd

quote:
Originally posted by jljones:
The first is the fact that the mental health system in this country isn't broken, it is non-existent. The cops can't do anything with them on the street in most cases because there are no teeth in the law to hold them. So, they wind up in the ER.

Unfortunately, the family can't get an involuntary commitment via the courts either. Restraining orders, tough love, and praying they seek their own treatment before they commit a felony or kill themselves.

July 02, 2017, 03:55 PM

radioman

For a while, like in the 90's, it was Taxi drivers getting assaulted on a regular basis.

July 02, 2017, 05:15 PM

ZSMICHAEL

quote:
Unfortunately, the family can't get an involuntary commitment via the courts either. Restraining orders, tough love, and praying they seek their own treatment before they commit a felony or kill themselves.

Depends on the state. Standard is examination by psychologist or psychiatrist that the person is dangerous to themselves, danger to others or unable to care for self in community. Usually a commitment affidavit is filed first, picked up by LEO when they have time, held in a facility and then court hearing. Then it is more waiting until bed available. Released back into the community to have the process repeated. Our jails have become the facility where most of the seriously mentally ill are housed. Sad state of affairs.

July 02, 2017, 10:35 PM

nhtagmember

quote:
Originally posted by Dusty78:

Unfortunately federal law doesn't allow us to choose who we treat. It's the opposite actually, tread everyone or suffer severe legal and financial consequences.

which is why I said we had a legal problem

that can be fixed by changing the law

July 03, 2017, 08:32 AM

2000Z-71

quote:
Originally posted by jljones:
I think there are two distinct reasons for this. The first is the fact that the mental health system in this country isn't broken, it is non-existent. The cops can't do anything with them on the street in most cases because there are no teeth in the law to hold them. So, they wind up in the ER.

The second is the rampant "I'm ok, you're ok, it is just a substance abuse problem" that our nation has become. These people wind up in the ER for various reasons to include drug seeking behavior.

And really, there's a third. Homelessness. I think it links directly to points one and two. I think there is a direct link between mental illness and homelessness. I think if the country did a better job with mental health services (IE- that drug didn't work, here take this one), the level of homelessness and homeless related problems/violence would drop off.

My opinion only as a beat cop and I have nothing to back any of it up other than 22 years street experience.

Totally agree on all points.

A fourth I see a lot on our suicide holds. Patients that have never ben told, "No" for anything in their lives absolutely flip and lose their shit when placed in a room wearing nothing but a paper gown and have all of their possessions locked up. When their demands for having their cell phone, a cigarette or a call to their boyfriend/girlfriend/mommy are not met, it usually does not end well.

I know you mentioned mental health. But a lot of these do not have a previous psych history. It's a fight with a family member, loved one, etc. where they don't get their way and they'll either say something or do something stupid in half assed attempt to get attention.

July 03, 2017, 11:53 AM

Dusty78

Then you always have the attention seeking couple with bullshit Munchausen's patient with 32 visits for bullshit abdominal pain and their aggressive signicant other who flips out because we aren't doing enough

Maybe one of those paper gowns is what's really needed and not another CT.

July 04, 2017, 08:34 PM

Awsmrn

YES I agree that we are seeing an increase in violence towards healthcare workers. Violence should never be "just part of the job"!! We need better federal laws to protect us. After the incident in Illinois where a nurse was taken hostage on May 13th and tortured and rapped a group was created on Facebook, it's called Healthcare Workers Protection Act of 2017.
https://www.facebook.com/group...orkersprotectionact/

Please take a moment to check it out, the main goal of the group is to gain better laws to protect all healthcare workers. We also want to raise awareness of this epidemic.
In 2013, there were an estimated 9,200 incidents of violence against healthcare workers that required time off to recover.The majority were perpetrated by patients or family. This represents 67% of injuries when the industry represents only 11.5% of workers.
blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2015/03/27/violence-in-healthcare

We are also aware that the statistics of healthcare worker violence is not accurate due to a lack of reports, many do not report a violent act because they feel it does not matter nothing will be done or they don't report due to fear of retaliation from employer.

Here is a good article "Why violence against nurses has spiked in the last decade" https://www.theatlantic.com/bu...ainst-nurses/509309/

#SilentNoMore

July 04, 2017, 08:42 PM

Awsmrn

quote:
Originally posted by radioman:
For a while, like in the 90's, it was Taxi drivers getting assaulted on a regular basis.

Yes and in some states like New York they have laws that make assaulting a taxi driver a felony. Yet healthcare workers have no such law and many workers who do make a report with LEO's often find the charges have later been dropped.

July 04, 2017, 09:58 PM

patw

I have been threatened numerous times on and off duty working for the f.d. as a medic/ff, some I thought were serious. Many times we get associated with/taken for police officers, (again,on and off duty), just because of our uniforms and the ignorance of some people.A few times we were alerted to gangs trying to stage a fake motor vehicle crash only to kill as many f.d personnel as they could. So, every crash had to be cleared with at least one officer prior to f.d. arriving on scene.

I do feel bad for hospital workers having to deal with some patients we bring in due to poss. violence while in such a small place. Fortunately, most of the hospitals by me either have armed police in the e.r. or numerous huge security guards.

July 05, 2017, 06:34 AM

fgwilliams1

I asked our security dude at work what is the response for an active shooter. He said the local police department has a response time of 2 to 5 minutes. Got to hold on until they show up.
I asked him if he knew how much shooting could be done in that amount of time.

July 05, 2017, 08:52 AM

a1abdj

quote:
Yes and in some states like New York they have laws that make assaulting a taxi driver a felony. Yet healthcare workers have no such law and many workers who do make a report with LEO's often find the charges have later been dropped.

I'm against special laws that make crime against one group greater than a crime against another.

I would settle for simply enforcing the law and teaching offenders than their behavior will not be tolerated.

July 05, 2017, 09:13 AM

chellim1

quote:
I'm against special laws that make crime against one group greater than a crime against another.
I would settle for simply enforcing the law and teaching offenders than their behavior will not be tolerated.

Exactly. Equal opportunity for all requires equality before the law.
There is no such thing as a "hate crime" only crime. All crime is hateful in some way.

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor

July 05, 2017, 10:14 AM

captain127

quote:
Originally posted by Awsmrn:
quote:
Originally posted by radioman:
For a while, like in the 90's, it was Taxi drivers getting assaulted on a regular basis.

Yes and in some states like New York they have laws that make assaulting a taxi driver a felony. Yet healthcare workers have no such law and many workers who do make a report with LEO's often find the charges have later been dropped.

Actually most states now have laws for assault on a health care worker carrying a heavier penalty.
Once when I was hit by a patient they did call the police drag the patient out in cuffs ( after a wrestling match with officers) was never called to testify so not sure how far the charges went but suspect the assault on a police officer was plenty to lock her up for a while.