By HFT Staff

The working conditions in hospitals and other healthcare facilities have never been so dangerous. For the last two-plus years, fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the traditional pressures and emotions of visiting and staying in healthcare facilities, resulting in more incidents of workplace violence. The situation prompted the Joint Commission to revise its workplace violence standard to address the heightened threats to security and safety. 

But just how much violence is occurring? And how can healthcare facility managers gather enough accurate data about workplace violence in their facilities to make informed, effective decisions to address it? 

Recently, the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS) unveiled three new guidance documents designed to lay the foundation for a more standardized and consistent approach to the collection and categorization of security incidents within healthcare. 

The group’s goal is to improve the ability to statistically compare from healthcare facility to healthcare facility while driving data-driven decisions that support the maintenance of a safe environment, the implementation of best practices, the growth of security program initiatives, and the implementation of safety and security-related mitigations. 

Guideline 01.05.02 Incident Categories and Data Analysis provides guidance on collecting security incident and activity data to monitor the environment, make data-driven decisions and meet regulatory compliance. Collecting standardized incident and security activity data will assist healthcare organizations to benchmark nationally and internationally. 

The Incident Category and Data Collection Framework is designed to capture security incidents and select event categories in a consistent approach. The framework provides recommendations for the way security incident and event categories should be organized within the healthcare delivery system. Groupings are defined in five broad areas with specific categories, sub-categories and incident types. The five major groups are: violence and aggression; other criminal activity; emergency; security assist; and safety–facility management.