Penn State Health highlights employee safety initiatives

During the past two years, Penn State Health has implemented multiple resources to prevent and respond to violence toward staff.

These resources include:

• Behavioral De-escalation Response Teams respond 24/7 when staff need help with patients or visitors who display signs of increased irritability, such as a raised voice, swearing, argumentativeness, impatience, etc.
• Safety First notices, posted throughout all Penn State Health organizations, remind patients and visitors of the no tolerance policy for aggressive behavior.
• The health system installed duress notification buttons on badges that immediately direct security to the location of staff members confronted by a dangerous situation. Penn State Health also installed panic buttons in employee work spaces in response to safety threats.
• A Crisis Behavior Assessment tool helps staff proactively identify patients at risk for aggressive/violent behavior.
• Additional security staff provide a strong presence in both clinical and non-clinical areas.
• Investments in security technology, training and building infrastructure ensure better control of the physical environment.

Reporting data such as the number of assaults, the types of assaults and locations of these physical or verbal events helps leaders identify additional safety measures and support resources for employees. Both Hershey Medical Center and St. Joseph Medical Center report instances of violent behavior through reporting platforms, such as Midas and IMPACT. The Workplace Violence Prevention Committee at Holy Spirit also collects this data and is working on established baselines for comparison.

During calendar year 2020, the following system trends were identified through employee assault reports:

• At Hershey Medical Center about 30% of all assaults resulted in a minor or moderate injury, such as a scratch, bruise or strain. At St. Joseph Medical Center, that number was 40%.
• While assaults to security staff, physicians and other members of the care team are included in the reports, assaults on nursing staff account for the majority of assaults.
• Emergency Department and adult acute care unit staff experienced the highest number of assaults.

Penn State Health strongly recommends that employees report near-misses, but that data is not included in these counts. While the most recent data demonstrates improvement in deterring violent behavior toward staff, the health system is committed to continuing efforts to further reduce these assaults.

Hershey Medical Center Security Director Dave Melhorn believes collaboration with clinical and non-clinical departments is critical to increasing employee safety, as is strong support from leadership.

“We are working hard to develop new strategies, tools and skills in support of our workforce,” said Melhorn, who often shares his team’s strategies with other hospitals that reach out for guidance. “Nationally assaults against health care workers continue to grow, therefore we must remain vigilant, adopt best practices and report every incident. I believe with continued support from hospital leadership, we are working toward achieving a safer workplace each day.”

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