Data-driven approach may reduce violence against hospital workers

According to a new study, a worksite intervention using unit-level data on violent events could lead to lower risks of patient-to-worker violence and injury to hospital staff.

Violence from patients is a significant occupational hazard for hospital employees. An intervention was designed by Judith Arnetz from Michigan State University and her colleagues, which focused on assessing and preventing violence and related injuries to hospital workers.

The study intervention was designed as a data-driven approach to assessing and lowering the risk of patient-to-worker violence and injuries. It standardises violence surveillance and risk analysis, but gives hospital units the flexibility and autonomy to use their own data to drive the violence prevention process.

Forty-one units in a Midwestern hospital system were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Intervention units received unit-level data on violent events and injuries, for use in developing their own action plans for violence prevention, while control units received no data.

Six months later, the rate of violent events was about 50% lower on hospital units that received the study intervention, compared to control units. At two years, the risk of violence-related injury was nearly 60% lower on intervention units. Violent events seemed to provide ‘early warning’ of a risk for injuries.

The differences did not reflect lower rates of violence and injury on the intervention units. Rather, these units avoided the increases in violence seen on control units. During the study period (2010–2015), violence rates at US hospitals increased significantly.

Units participating in the intervention were able to avoid the trend towards increased violent events and injuries occurring in control units and at hospitals nationwide. Arnetz and colleagues believe their approach to workplace violence and monitoring, risk assessment and intervention “could be standardised and translated to hospital systems nationwide to improve worker health and safety”.

The study was published in the January Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Syda Productions