By HFT Staff

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed to the forefront a crisis that already was brewing in many hospitals and healthcare facilities — workplace violence. Facilities staff, who already had been working in high-pressure conditions, started to face surging caseloads and desperate families looking for help for sickened relatives. As a result, workers faced surging threats of workplace violence. The Joint Commission even revised its standards on the issue to address the crisis. 

Now, healthcare facilities managers have another resource to improve the safety and security of their staffs, operations and buildings. 

Related Content: Strategies and Technologies for Safeguarding Healthcare Facilities

The International Association of Healthcare Safety & Security (IAHSS). The IAHSS recently created the  IAHSS Workplace Violence Bundle eBooklet with select guidelines from the IAHSS Healthcare Security Industry Guidelines and the IAHSS Security Design Guidelines for Healthcare Facilities. 

This online IAHSS Workplace Violence Bundle eBooklet has 19 select guidelines focused on supporting a workplace violence prevention approach to healthcare security and safety. The guidelines address: 

• Security Vulnerability Assessments 
• Program Measurement and Improvement – Security Metrics 
• Violence in Healthcare 
• Targeted Violence 
• Management of Weapons 
• Threat Management 
• De-Escalation Training 
• Security Use of Physical Force 
• Security Role in Patient Management 
• Security Role in High-Risk Patient Watches 
• Violent Patient Management / Patient Visitor Management 
• Searching Patients and Patient Areas for Contraband 
• Security in the Emergency Care Setting 
• Services - Patient - Behavioral/Mental Health (General) 
• Prisoner Patient Security 
• General Staff Security Orientation and Education 
• Crime Prevention / Safety Awareness 
• Buildings and the Internal Environment – Emergency Departments 
• Buildings and the Internal Environment – Behavioral / Mental Health.