AHA, FBI Offer Resources Around Healthcare Workplace Violence
As explained in an Oct. 22 Special Bulletin, the Chicago-based American Hospital Association (AHA), in partnership with the FBI, has released a new resource and webpage on mitigating targeted violence in healthcare settings.
The Special Bulletin notes that “Targeted violence in healthcare refers to intentional and harmful acts in which care teams, patients and healthcare facilities are specifically singled out. Such acts of violence can take many forms, including physical assaults, verbal threats, harassment, and even large-scale attacks. Targeted violence compromises access and delivery of care, creates difficult work environments, and impacts the overall safety and quality of healthcare delivery.”
Further, the Special Bulletin states, “To assist in addressing these concerns, the AHA partnered with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit to promote violence prevention strategies and address the escalating threats and acts of targeted violence against health care facilities and the workforce.”
The partnership aims to offer a full suite of resources for hospitals and health systems to implement threat assessment and threat management principles.
The first resource available is an issue brief evaluating threat assessment and threat management and steps to take should a potential threat be identified.
There is also a new dedicated webpage, “Mitigating Targeted Violence in Health Care Settings.”
The Special Bulletin includes a link to an Issue Brief entitled “Building a Safe Workplace and Community.”
Among the numerous recommendations in that Issue Brief are the creation of an enterprise risk management program for patient care organizations. And the Issue Brief explains that “Enterprise risk management encompasses the entire organizational care setting (inpatient, outpatient services, outpatient offices, freestanding labs and urgent care settings, long-term care, home health and others) and administrative processes with the goal of mitigating risks, identifying types of hazard prevention and risk control measures necessary to avoid or mitigate security incidents.”
The Issue Brief notes that “A risk assessment is based on research and data on the prevalence of violent incidents in particular populations, as well as individual factors that are associated with disruptive and violent behaviors. A variety of risk assessment tools exist to evaluate individuals and situations for potential violence, enabling the health care workforce to share a common frame of reference and understanding. Event reporting is essential to the organization’s ability to mitigate the risk of violence. Leaders play a role in fostering a culture of safety and risk awareness that encourages reporting incidents of violence, intimidation or threats; promotes the use of a consolidated security/event incident reporting system and established categories; and sponsors the implementation of evidence-based safety technologies. Risk assessment and threat assessments are often used interchangeably, but each are significantly different.”
A key element in the development of a comprehensive risk assessment, the Issue Brief explains, are safety flagging and behavioral responses to potential issues. It cites as one example, the leaders at New York-Presbyterian, noting that, “With 11 hospitals and 47,000 employees, the New York City-based health system’s security professionals are continuously identifying new and innovative strategies, including electronic medical record flagging, behavioral risk assessment and mass casualty event training, to prevent and mitigate workplace violence incidents.”
And, later in the text, the Issue Brief notes that “The four key components of a threat assessment process are 1) creating the threat assessment team; 2) identification of a potential threat; 3) investigation; and 4) mitigation and management of the threat.”
