Panic buttons for hospital workers — passing COVID fad or new but permanent normal?
Faced with sharply spiking assault rates against nurses and other frontline healthcare workers, one U.S. medical center is equipping hundreds of its people with wearables that can summon security at the click of a button.
In doing so, Cox Medical Center Branson in Missouri has caught the eye of numerous news outlets. Some suggest the strategy’s heightened profile may cause it to spread across the U.S.
The Cox story drew national attention when the Associated Press covered it Sept. 28.
The news service notes the correlation between the upswing in violence and the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic:
Hospital data showed that the number of ‘security incidents’ at the Branson hospital rose from 94 in 2019 to 162 in 2020. Assaults rose from 40 to 123 during that same period, and injuries to healthcare workers rose from 17 to 78.”
The article also quotes a chief nursing officer at Methodist Healthcare in Texas who in August reported the system’s workers have been “threatened with bodily harm and even had knives pulled on them.”
Meanwhile a hospital spokesperson in Idaho tells Fortune: “Our healthcare workers are almost feeling like Vietnam veterans, scared to go into the community after a shift.”
And Ars Technica reports that some hospitals are adding security dogs, body cameras and de-escalation training.
More from the AP story:
Worldwide, a February report by the Geneva-based Insecurity Insight and the University of California, Berkeley’s Human Rights Center identified more than 1,100 threats or acts of violence against healthcare workers and facilities last year. Researchers found that about 400 of those attacks were related to COVID-19, many motivated by fear or frustration.”
A hospital association spokesperson in Missouri points out that assaults on healthcare workers are not a new thing. However, he adds, COVID-19 “has changed the dynamic in a number of ways.”
The Guardian builds out the story here, citing national violence prevention standards from the Joint Commission and pending federal legislation in the form of the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act.
The latter passed in the U.S. House in April to mixed reactions, including opposition from the American Hospital Association (AHA).
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.