Emergency Room Workplace Violence: Electronic Behavioral Alerts May Be Prone to Bias

In a poll funded by the American College of Emergency Physicians, two-thirds of emergency physicians and 70% of nurses said they had been physically assaulted at work in the prior year. Patients were perpetrators in 97% of the workplace violence incidences in the poll. The poll found hitting, spitting, and punching were the most common kinds of physical assaults.

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Will a ‘National Patient Safety Board,’ Modeled After the NTSB, Actually Fly?

Two measures are underway to create a safety board: A bill filed in the U.S. House in December by Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.), which is expected to be refiled this session, calls for the creation of a board to help federal agencies monitor safety events, identify conditions under which problems occur, and suggest preventive measures.

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