On Sept. 13, the HQI convened a group of over 30 hospital leaders in Sacramento for a gathering dedicated to preventing and responding to workplace violence. The event, Hospital Workplace Violence Regional Leadership Summit, followed the release of HQI’s white paper on workplace violence earlier this year.
Hospital leaders discussed how the growing threat of workplace violence is affecting their hospitals as well as the resources and processes they are putting in place to prevent and control violent incidents. Specific topics included how to recognize a person’s risk for violence and convey this information to everyone on the care team, how to address the staff under-reporting of workplace violence, and how to balance the need to provide a welcoming hospital environment with the need to prevent the entry of weapons into the hospital.
Curbing workplace violence is vital to hospitals because the safety and well-being of the health care workforce is a basic precondition for delivering safe and effective patient care, and HQI is committed to helping mitigate the problem. The next step for HQI will be to develop a community of practice on workplace violence, involving hospitals throughout the state in a collaborative peer network aimed at exchanging best practices and finding effective solutions to this important issue. Stay tuned for more information and how your hospital can get involved.
For more information, contact Boris Kalanj, HQI’s director of programs at bkalanj@hqinstitute.org.