As far as the Human Services Industry goes, violence against healthcare and social service workers has always been prevalent. We see it constantly with our clients. Data from 2017 provided by The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that injuries deemed “intentional” reported by Health care and social workers happen at a rate of 9.1 per 10,000 workers. IN FACT, in 2018, Cleveland Clinic CEO Tom Mihaljevic stated 30,000 weapons were confiscated throughout all of its northeast Ohio Facilities from not only patients but visitors as well.
Thus we have potential new legislation on the Horizon. The Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (H.R. 1309) advances from the House Education and Labor Committee to the House for a vote as of June 11. This would require that OSHA issue a standard mandating that employers develop/deploy workplace violence plans. This would include an interim final OSHA standard 24 months following enactment and a final standard to be completed no later than 42 months following enactment. The goal is to enforce a Federal Standard to combat the growing level of violence against Health Care Workers. For those states NOT under OSHA oversight, protections will be offered for public sector workers by requiring employers to Identify risks, mandate training and enhancing incident reporting investigations. There are currently 173 sponsors as well as support form the National Nurses United that feel this is a big step towards a safer workplace
There is opposition on this bill. However, the concern is that this will override OSHA’s normal rulemaking process and requiring these facilities to duplicate policies and waste precious resources that they already have in place for anti-workplace violence.
The reality of the situation is that every time your doors open, whether it be a Home Healthcare Agency (for profit or not), or Nursing Home Facility, they risk of loss to the organization is inevitable. MOST organizations we meet have ineffective processes which, at best, do the bare minimum to meet regulatory standards and are ill-equipped to draw up an effective “battle plan”. That is not an indictment but rather a lack of resources and knowledge.
Further irrespective of what gets decided by OSHA as it relates to the workplace violence issue. This is a topic most employers should be working very hard to get in front of purely because it makes great business sense. Two of the biggest issues facing human services and healthcare organizations are employee retention and the high cost of workers’ compensation insurance.
Ask yourself:
- How do we as an organization navigate changing legislation and regulation?
- What processes do we have in place when one of our employees becomes injured due to a “workplace violence Incident?
- Are we an organization that just accepts the status quo or do we augment our workplace violence against employees to get better?
- How would our insurance program respond to a workplace violence claim?
- How does our present insurance broker assist us with resources so our lift to execution isn’t so expensive from a time money standpoint?
The second half of the conversation is addressing how an organization can use Best Practices to lower the probability / reduce the severity of workplace violence incidents and then transfer the cost of risk to an insurance program. Stayed tuned for part two.
If you’re struggling to answer these questions or answered these questions and didn’t like your answers contact one of our Risk Advisors or call 914.357.8444 Today!
Photo by Ilya Pavlov on Unsplash
Photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash