An open conversation on healthcare security and violence prevention.
Healthcare security officers face every possible tactical challenge within the scope of a single shift. From a simple customer service interaction, to responding to a person engaged in active assaultive behavior, these officers make decisions every day that have far reaching implications for their organizations.
For those who have been in the industry for a while, we are seeing a shift toward more proactive methods like threat assessment. It is a critical shift for our industry, and I am grateful to see work like this being produced.
If regulations are needed to force healthcare organizations to change then that is an unfortunate reality.
Even when we react to something like a theft or an act of violence, we must be able to carry our response forward into new measures of prevention to ensure the event is not repeated.
This week I want us to wrap this discussion up by talking about the ‘now what’. What I mean is, you have the tool, you use the tool, but then what do we do with the information provided by the tool.
This is the match, this is the team that is needed; operational experts on the clinical side working hand-in-hand with operational experts on the security side.
The ABRAT presents a promising leap forward in bedside violence risk assessment, and when combined with proactive response by the staff can significantly reduce the risk of a workplace assault.
The BVC is one of the most well researched violence risk assessment tools out there. The immense body of research surrounding the BVC helps to make it stand out among its peers in the field of bed-side risk assessment. That is especially true given the incredible reduction in violence associated with the tools regular and ongoing use.
