Hospitals Against Violence: Enhancing employee and patient experiences within the Aspirus Health System
6/2/2023
Since the beginning of
the COVID-19 pandemic, the health care field has experienced an increase in
workplace violence. The pandemic has placed significant stress on the entire
health care system, and unfortunately, in some situations, patients, visitors and
family members have verbally or physically attacked health care staff and
jeopardized our workforce’s ability to provide care.
According to a
2022 workplace
survey from the American Nurses Foundation (ANF), of nearly 11,900
nurses, almost one-third of respondents had experienced incidents of physical
violence and two-thirds said they had experienced bullying or incivility.
#HAVhope Friday, or
Hospitals Against Violence, is a national day of awareness (June 2) to
highlight how America’s hospitals and health systems are working toward
partnerships, innovations and creative thinking to build a safe workplace and
community.
Aspirus Health has
been committed over the past year to significantly advance and accelerate work
to protect our health care workers against violence.
“Across our health
system we have developed a Workplace Violence Committee with System Executive
oversight and leadership to advance our program,” says Andrew Miller, Director
of System Facility Management and Security at Aspirus Health. “We have focused
on improving data reporting and analysis, risk evaluation and reduction
assessments, and developing an aligned program that ensures the safety of our
staff. Additionally, we have partnered to create tools internally and
externally to provide education, risk mitigation and violence intervention
programs that improve the safety of our staff.”
A variety of tactics
have been completed to enhance employee and patient experiences within Aspirus
Health:
- Formally introduced a
Workplace Violence Committee that evaluates our Aspirus System-Wide efforts and
policies to promote a safe workplace for our employees, patients, and visitors
- Completed Technology,
Physical and Community Risk Assessments to identify opportunities to create a
safe hospital and clinic environment
- Reviewed and enhanced
our technology and physical environment to ensure we are leveraging all tools
and opportunities to provide a safe environment
- Developed a simple
workflow for employees and leadership to encourage all workplace violence
events receive thorough reporting, investigation and follow-up
Miller adds, “we
continue to assess risk and implement initiatives that help us move toward a
proactive environment to protect our staff.”
Aspirus takes workplace violence events seriously and
encourages employees to report any incidents including verbal, physical and
mental abuse. There are several internal employee assistance services for those
seeking help.
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