Healthcare has been under siege in several ways. We claim to want and need healthcare as some sort of human right, and yet we seem to treat it for granted, and many great servants of hte people are getting hurt or killed from doing their jobs. This is not even to discuss how the Affordable Care Act has impacted the healthcare industry in the United States
To be fair, much of healthcare iinvolves working with those who have mental or emotional problems, and these patients are those at higher risk of lashing out in violent ways and putting health professionals’ lives at risk, not to mention other patients and family members. This of course is not to mention the more passive risks, such as exposure to infectious and contagious diseases on a daily basis.
Healthcare workplace violence, whether the perpetrator is a patient or an overstressed or despondent worker, has become a growing trend and a threat to the estimated 15 million healthcare workers in the United States. it has grown to the point that several member of Congress took notice and wanted to understand the extent of the problem and the steps that are being taken in worker-safety circles.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) completed a report about workplace violence-mitigation efforts in the occupational health and safety progression, paying particular attention to federal and state OSHA offices around the country. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) led the small cadre of congressional members who requested the report to gather information about federal agencies and their work with firms about workplace violence in the healthcare industry.
What the GAO report revealed is that not only were suspicions confirmed that workplace violence incidents have increased, but also the revelation that OSHA and most state agencies do not have any required or mandatory workplace-prevention programs in place. Only about nine states have any requirements involving workplace violence in healthcare, and every oher state (as well as the federa OSHA agency) providing only voluntary guidelines and educational information.
That was considered unacceptable to the GAO, and the agency developed a series of recommendations to have the various OSHA entities assess their efforts in addressing workplace violence generally and in the healthcare industry especially. This may include each state developing more robust violence-prevention programs and perhaps making them more compulsory than they have been to this point. In the wake of the report’s release, the federal OSHA agency stated that it would agree with the recommendations from the report and would take steps to address the issue and its own program initiatives in order to be more effective as a resource.
Information about the report and other background can be found at this link.