OHA PPN company offers information on the high cost of workplace violence

Posted on: 1/3/20

Qualivis a Lotus Workforce Solutions brand, is a national provider of health care workforce solutions that simplifies staffing and helps hospitals and health systems build a better workplace to improve patient care. The company works with state hospital associations, health care facilities, and a national network of staffing agencies to keep clinical and non-clinical departments staffed through a simple standardized approach.  

When you think of a hospital, you think of a safe space – a place to go to recover from illness or heal from injury. Increasingly, however, that sense of security is threatened by acts of violence committed against the people who have dedicated their career to help others. Data from numerous national organizations indicate that workplace violence is on the rise, with health care workers at a four times greater risk of being a victim of on-the-job violence than workers in any other industry.

In fact, 2013 data from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), an arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, indicate that 9,200 non-fatal workplace violence-related injuries were reported that year among health care workers. This accounts for more than 67% of all non-fatal workplace violence-related injuries across all industries. Research from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) paints a similar picture, stating that approximately 75% of nearly 25,000 workplace assaults reported annually occurred in health care and social service settings. The vast majority of these incidents were perpetrated by patients or their family members.

Aside from the obvious physical and emotional consequences of workplace violence against nurses and other health care professionals, the issue is financially costly as well. A 2017 report prepared for the American Hospital Association (AHA) estimated that workplace violence cost U.S. hospitals and health systems $2.7 billion in 2016. This astronomical number includes:

• $280 million related to preparedness and prevention,
• $429 million in medical care, staffing, indemnity and other costs related to violence against hospital employees,
• $852 million in unreimbursed medical care for victims,
• $1.1 billion in security and training costs.

Additionally, the study found that health care workers who were victims of violence took an average of 112.8 hours per year of sick, disability and leave time – 60.4 hours more per year than non-victims. With such financial and operational costs related to the prevalence of workplace violence, hospitals and health systems need to make risk reduction and prevention a priority.

NIOSH lists a variety of risk factors for violence in hospital settings. Among them, understaffing, particularly during times of heavy activity, like mealtimes and visiting hours. To this end, NIOSH recommends that hospital administrators design staffing patterns to prevent workers from working alone, especially during busy times. The Joint Commission also lists staffing as an area of improvement in its zero-tolerance approach to workplace violence.

With health care workers’ safety at risk and hospitals’ bottom lines at stake, a concentrated effort needs to be made industry wide to put programs and improvements in place – staffing and otherwise – to prevent violence from continuing to plague the workplace. Enlisting the help of a workforce solutions provider to ensure adequate staffing could be a good first step toward mitigating any risk that may exist in your facility.

For additional information about Qualivis and what they can do for your hospital, contact Mary Winters at OHA, [email protected]. (Sherry Kolb, RN, president of Qualivis)