Healthcare Workplace Violence Legislation Introduced in Congress
The Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Worker Act was introduced by U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT). The bill has bipartisan backing in the House of Representatives, with support from Don Bacon (R-NE), Jefferson Van Drew (R-NJ), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA).
PSQH Quick Poll: Taking the Pulse of Patient Safety
As part of PSQH’s celebration of Patient Safety Awareness Week, we decided to reach out to our readers with a few questions to find out the state of patient safety efforts in 2023. Part of PSQH’s Patient Safety Awareness Week activities, this PSQH Quick Poll is presented in partnership with GOJO – the makers of Purell, Nuance, Origami Risk, and the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission. The Quick Poll had a total of 105 respondents.
ECRI: Pediatric Mental Health Crisis Top Patient Safety Concern of 2023
Patient safety has been a pressing issue in healthcare since 1999, with the publication of the landmark report To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Despite two decades of attention, estimates of annual patient deaths due to medical errors have risen steadily to as many as 440,000 lives, a figure that was reported in the Journal of Patient Safety in 2013.
Just 40% of Healthcare Workers Think Their Workplace is Well Prepared for an Active Assailant
Of the nurse respondents, 81% are concerned about patients becoming violent, which is understandable given that 59% of them reported a dangerous event at their workplace, according to the Healthcare Worker Safety Survey conducted by Motorola Solutions, which specializes in video security and access control.
PSQH: The Podcast Episode 73 – New CMS Guidance on Workplace Violence in Healthcare
On episode 73 of PSQH: The Podcast, Adrian Arriaga, Healthcare Safety and Security Advising Partner for GHX, talks about new CMS guidance on dealing with workplace violence in healthcare.
Mistreatment Linked to Burnout in Emergency Medicine Residents
The new research article, which was published by Annals of Emergency Medicine, is based on survey data collected from 7,680 emergency medicine residents. The study examined three types of mistreatment: discrimination; physical, verbal, or emotional abuse; and sexual harassment.
Hospital EDs Are Taking a Proactive Approach to Violence
At Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, Massachusetts, administrators are tapping into the electronic health record platform to identify ED patients with a history of threatening behavior, which pushes out alerts to the care team. Those alerts not only give providers advance warning, but can help them call in behavioral healthcare specialists to help those patients.
OSHA Proceeding With Healthcare Rulemakings
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will proceed with three rulemakings focused on the healthcare industry—standards for COVID-19, infectious diseases, and workplace violence—the Department of Labor (DOL) announced as part of the fall 2022 unified regulatory agenda unveiled January 4.
Holiday Decorations Can Cost a Lot If They Come With a Citation
A hospital in Kansas was cited by CMS in 2020 was cited under K-0753, the CMS K-tag for such festive adornments, for failing “to provide corridors safe from excessive combustible decorations” after a lab supply closet was spotted “completely covered with combustible decorations.”
CMS Urges Hospitals to Take Violence Prevention Steps
To provide care in a safe setting for both patients and healthcare workers, hospitals need to identify patients at risk for intentional harm to themselves or others, CMS recommended in its November 28 memo, as well as identify environmental safety risks for such patients and provide education and training for staff and volunteers. CMS said it expects hospitals to demonstrate how they identify patients at risk of self-harm or harm to others and what steps they are taking to minimize those risks.