New York Presbyterian Combats Workplace Violence with Training, Risk Assessments and More
NYP reduces workplace violence by flagging patients with violent histories, deploying metal detectors, and other efforts.
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With CMS and other agencies warning U.S. hospitals to do a better job of prioritizing employee and patient security, a new case study from the American Hospital Association (AHA) is highlighting what it says are some innovative workplace violence prevention strategies adopted by New York Presbyterian (NYP) health system.
The approach balances traditional security and emergency management practices with IT infrastructure, according to the case study.
NYP’s workplace violence risk assessment effort is comprehensive, involving the security department, emergency management staff, legal, investigations, HR, patient experience, clinicians, and others. When a situation escalates, experts and more processes are available. Additionally, before an incident has the chance to develop, the security department notifies clinicians about patients with a history of violence via a risk assessment tool, called electronic medical record (EMR) flagging.
Many staff members — including security officers, clinicians, and administrators – have been trained on de-escalation, as well as how to respond to and report workplace violence. When de-escalation techniques don’t work, NYP’s Behavioral Emergency Response Team can step in. That team has even more training.
Metal detectors have also been installed. Additionally, staff members have received active shooter and mass casualty incident response training.
NYP also reviews data to locate where security must be bolstered. That data analysis also measures the results of various tactics and solutions being used. A new IT infrastructure helps staff members evaluate NYP’s security efforts.
The case study highlights the need for workplace violence prevention strategies to be supported by senior leaders.
NYP has 11 hospitals and more than 47,000 employees.
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