TJC releases Sentinel Event Alert on violence

Overcome common security challenges

The Joint Commission’s June 3 Sentinel Event Alert on healthcare violence warns that healthcare facilities are seeing increasing rates of crime, including violent crimes such as assault, rape, and homicide, and urges facilities to step up their prevention efforts.

But safety and security professionals are facing an uphill battle. According to Russ Colling, MS, CHPA, CPP, healthcare security consultant for Colling and Kramer in Salida, CO, hospitals are seeing more serious drug abuse, more mental health problems, and overcrowding in the ED. 

Both Colling and Fredrick Roll, MA, CHPA-F, CPP, president and principal consultant of Healthcare Security Consultants, Inc., and Roll Enterprises, Inc., in Frederick, CO, are not surprised by the 256 reports of assault, rape, and homicide since 1995 in The Joint Commission’s Sentinel Event Database.

However, the Alert still “wakes people up,” which is a good thing, says Roll. The Joint Commission has received 74 separate events in 2007–2009. (The Joint Commission also warns in the Alert that violent events are underreported.) 

The Alert suggests that healthcare facilities identify high-risk areas, provide background checks on staff when necessary, and train staff on de-escalation techniques. 

But Roll and Colling say no amount of preparation trumps a culture of responsibility, in which every employee feels that he or she is partly responsible for the security of the hospital. This attitude, they say, helps create the best access control, which is paramount to preventing violence. 

A culture of responsibility 

Even steps as simple as ensuring that every visitor is greeted by someone can help.

“That’s why Wal-Mart has a person at the door when you come in—that’s a security measure,” says Roll. “They’re getting a two for one—they are making you feel welcome, and they know that shoplifters don’t like to know that somebody’s looked them in the eye and has seen them. There’s a certain deterrent effect when a person feels they’ve been seen and recognized.”

Colling suggests that all staff members, no matter what department they work in—whether the kitchen, loading dock, or clinical unit—be trained to take this first step in protecting their work environment, and that they should be bound to this responsibility. After hours, all but one entrance should be locked in order to make this task easier, he says. 

Although staff may balk at the idea that security is in any way their responsibility, it’s important to remind them that they are simply the first people who may be able to identify a problem, and that they have a small part to protecting the hospital and its patients.