Workplace violence is a serious risk, especially for staff in healthcare facilities. The right security technology, processes, and people can make a big difference in increasing security and safety for everyone, including patients and staff. However, violence can be unpredictable, and no single system or solution can be everywhere all the time.

Good security, including staff protection, needs to be a multi-layered, integrated solution for comprehensive coverage and protection. It also needs to be an ongoing effort that is monitored regularly and improved when needed. Here’s how to evaluate your hospital’s staff protection:

1. What do you already have in place for staff protection?
2. Does your current security technology cover everything?
3. How does your current solution support communication and coordination?
4. What are the current response times?
5. Are there things you can do to accelerate response times?
6. What gaps do you have in your current reporting and safety processes?
7. Are there insights you can gain from past incidents?
8. How will you continue to monitor and evaluate staff protection?

1. What Do You Already Have in Place for Staff Protection?

To evaluate your hospital’s staff protection, you have to know what you already have in place to prevent workplace violence. Take stock of everything you currently have in place, including security technology, people, processes, and more.

Sometimes, the process of simply taking inventory of what you have reveals things that are missing or current assets that are not being used at all or not used to their full potential. Underutilization can increase risks. Although it’s not a complete solution, making sure your security technology is being used to its full potential is one of the reasons your team needs to be trained on your security systems.

2. Does Your Current Security Technology Cover Everything?

You may have security technology for visitor management, access control, staff protection, and more. However, if you are missing key systems or your systems are not integrated into a seamless solution, there are likely security gaps and vulnerabilities that need to be addressed.

Security cameras and other monitoring systems can detect issues, but cannot prevent them on their own. De-escalation training and techniques can help staff reduce the risk of escalation to violence, but still put staff at risk, especially in unexpected situations.

Go through the current security technology you have, how it is set up, how well everything is integrated, etc. Also, determine what each component or system is doing, areas it covers, how it fits into your processes, how it currently operates in your facility, and how your team is using it. This will give you a good idea of what your current security technology does and does not cover.

Optimal staff protection would include an integrated solution where nurse call, security cameras, access control, alarms, and more all respond appropriately when a duress call is triggered. This ensures everyone who needs to be involved is notified immediately and has the information they need to facilitate an appropriate response and mobilize as quickly as possible. Plus, other staff members can monitor the situation as it evolves and adjust the response if needed until it is resolved.

3. How Does Your Current Solution Support Communication and Coordination?

Staff protection needs to be more than staff attack alarms. It has to include other systems for monitoring and needs to include the communication and coordination necessary for a rapid response. Staff cannot be left in the dark when they need to call for help or when responding to another staff member’s call for help.

Your hospital’s staff protection should be able to:

• Make it easy for staff to make a duress call no matter where they are or what is happening.
• Identify who is calling for help.
• Identify the location of the incident.
• Let the person in duress know that their call was received, noticed, and help is on the way.
• Let other staff members know someone has responded to the call.
• Call for additional support if it is required.
• Confirm when a situation is resolved.

These are all ways to improve nurse call workflows and increase staff efficiency, which can also help improve staff protection. If your current solution does not provide real-time alerts, information for in-the-moment insights, and full visibility of what is occurring, it needs to be upgraded. The solution you have in place should provide efficient communication, eliminate guesswork, and enable a coordinated response quickly.

4. What Are the Current Response Times?

When you are in need of help and waiting for support, seconds can feel like hours. When a staff member is being threatened with verbal or physical abuse, a lot can happen in mere seconds. Delayed responses increase the risk of injury and other harm for staff, patients, and visitors. Rapid, effective response is crucial.

When evaluating your hospital’s staff protection, your current response times are essential metrics. In looking over response time data, you can get a sense of how well your staff is able to communicate, coordinate, and respond to different types of alerts and situations, including duress calls from staff for assistance. This also gives you benchmarks to measure against after you implement anything new. This is also information that can be useful when it comes to security budget planning and making the case for investments in security technology upgrades.

5. Are There Things You Can Do to Accelerate Response Times?

Improving response times is one of the ways nurse call systems improve patient safety, and it’s something to keep in mind for staff protection. An important part of evaluating your hospital’s staff protection is reviewing your current setup and identifying things you can do to accelerate response times.

Not only does this facilitate rapid, efficient response in an emergency, but it also improves staff morale, confidence, and security. When staff members know that they will be supported in an emergency, they will:

• Feel more secure.
• Be less vulnerable.
• Be more likely to call for help when it is needed.
• Be more likely to follow through on the process to file a formal incident report.

One of the biggest things you can do to accelerate response times is to make sure staff have a way to call for help immediately when they need it and can do so at the first sign of escalating risk. A wearable, wireless, personal duress button equipped with real-time locating is key. This is something to look for when choosing the best nurse call system for your facility.

Wireless wearables for staff ensure that their ability to call for help is always within reach and that location-specific alerts are received by other security and nursing staff for rapid response. It also ensures the right information gets to the right people as soon as possible. This is one of the ways to use RTLS to improve healthcare asset management, and it is also useful for better staff protection.

6. What Gaps Do You Have in Your Current Reporting and Safety Processes?

Underreporting can make it difficult to accurately evaluate your hospital’s staff protection. In a self-reported study, only 12% of staff overall formally reported their workplace violence (WPV) incident. Part of evaluating your staff protection needs to include your current policies and procedures for safety and for reporting incidents.

Some of the biggest reasons why you need incident management software are to be able to:

• Track incidents.
• Consolidate information in one place.
• Analyze incidents and identify trends.
• Review past incidents to identify improvements.

Even with incident management software, you can’t track and review information you don’t have. If there are no policies in place for staff to report incidents or processes they can follow to do so, you may not be notified when incidents occur. If your staff feels unsupported or unheard, they may not report, even when you do have processes in place.

You need to provide an environment where staff feel comfortable reporting and are encouraged to report when something happens. Staff need to know that they will be supported, and reporting needs to be easy and seamless. Wearables that are part of an integrated nurse call solution help to automate this process should an incident occur, which takes stress off your staff and also gives you more reliable data to evaluate your hospital’s staff protection.

7. Are There Insights You Can Gain From Past Incidents?

Robust reporting capabilities are one of the things to look for in incident management software. Although it is not the only way to review past incidents, it does make it easier to review past incidents and gain insights from them. Often, past incidents provide valuable information about potential emerging risks, vulnerabilities, and gaps in your security and processes.

By taking the time to review them, you can identify improvements to close those gaps, cover vulnerabilities, and help prevent similar incidents from occurring again. At the very least, you can ensure that your processes are set up to minimize risk as much as possible should an incident occur.

8. How Will You Continue to Monitor and Evaluate Staff Protection?

Security is not a one-time installation. Risks and threats evolve, and your security technology needs to as well to keep up. Increasing risks and exposure to threats are some of the risks and challenges of legacy security systems. They are also risks for stagnant processes and policies.

The risks your staff faces every day will shift and evolve, and it is imperative that your staff protection evolves to keep up. Part of evaluating your hospital’s staff protection is determining how you will continue to monitor and evaluate it as you make changes and improvements.

• What benchmarks or metrics will you be measuring?
• How often?
• Who will be accountable for making sure evaluations occur regularly?
• How will your staff be involved in the process?
• Who else needs to be involved in the process?
• What processes do you have to consider for implementing changes or improvements?
• How will you determine what’s working, what’s not, and what should change?

These are all considerations for taking a proactive approach to evaluating and improving your hospital’s staff protection and overall security.

Upgrade Your Hospital’s Security and Staff Protection With NEPPS

Workplace violence is a major concern in healthcare, and it should be a concern for everyone. You won’t be able to eliminate 100% of the risks, but you can implement measures that reduce the risks and protect your staff.

These are some things to consider as you evaluate your hospital’s staff protection. Proactive monitoring and iterative improvements can help you close emerging security gaps and eliminate vulnerabilities that increase risk for your staff. Increasing safety and security in your hospital benefits patients, staff, and visitors, and allows your staff to focus on providing optimal patient care.

An experienced security systems integrator can help you evaluate your hospital’s staff protection and facility security and provide the right solutions to fit your needs. If you need to upgrade your hospital’s security and staff protection, contact Northeast Protection Partners at 1-800-736-1456. We can help you identify and implement the security solutions, integrations, and configurations your hospital needs.