Workplace Violence Prevention Programs in Hospital Emergency Departments

Abstract

Most hospitals in California and New Jersey had implemented a workplace violence prevention program, but important gaps were found.

Emergency Department Security Programs, Community Crime, and Employee Assaults

“…In 2000, all 85 licensed acute care hospitals and trauma centers in New Jersey were identified through the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS) Division of Health Care Quality and Oversight (HCQO) (8). Of these 85 hospitals, one had closed before the initiation of this study, resulting in a total of 84 eligible hospitals.…”

“…However, hospital security programs for EDs and psychiatric units have been found to have significant gaps. Hospital size and patient volume have been found to be related to the implementation of certain security program elements (8,9). In addition, it has been shown that state-mandated hospital security programs reduce rates of assault to ED and psychiatric department workers, but it is unclear how the comprehensive nature of these programs impacts those rates (10).…”

Workplace Violence Prevention Programs in Psychiatric Units and Facilities

“…To generally represent hospitals by level of care and size, acute care hospitals with a general psychiatric unit were stratified into the categories of trauma centers, acute care hospitals with 300 beds or more, and acute care hospitals with fewer than 300 beds (Peek-Asa et al, 2007). Hospitals within these categories were randomly selected from a complete census of acute care and psychiatric facilities obtained from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development and the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services.…”

An Association Between Occupancy Rates in the Emergency Department and Rates of Violence Toward Staff

“…Among the locations for violent events to take place in the health care setting, the emergency department (ED) and treatment rooms are among the most frequent (2)(3)(4). Reported acts of violence towards ED staff range from verbal abuse to even death, with nurses and physicians being the most common victims (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12).…”