Healthcare workers are at significant risk for workplace violence. Data shows that between 2011 and 2013, nearly 75 percent of workplace assaults took place in healthcare settings. This is among the risks that hospitals need to plan for.
A new report shows that providers spend billions of dollars preparing for and responding to violence both inside and outside of hospitals. That number includes losses from uncompensated care, added security spending and more. The report was prepared by consulting firm Milliman for the American Hospital Association.
To quantify the substantial resources put toward caring for victims of violence and anticipating violent events, the researchers divided costs into four groups: preparedness and prevention for public violence, post-incident public violence costs, preparedness and prevention for violence in healthcare facilities, and costs following a violent incident in a health facility.
Based on analysis of available data, the researchers estimated that hospitals spent $2.7 billion in 2016 on both proactive and reactive violence response efforts. The report provides a breakdown of the costs:
- $1.1 billion to shore up security inside hospitals and their facilities in advance of a violent incident;
- About $429 million for medical care, indemnity, staffing and other costs following an incident;
- About $280 million for prevention programmes for community violence; and
- $852 million to cover uncompensated care and utilisation review costs for victims of violence.
Hospitals are also on the front lines of responding to community violence and play an important role in prevention, according to the report, which was presented at a panel during the AHA's leadership summit.
AHA President Rick Pollack said in a statement that preventing violence is central to hospitals’ missions.
“Keeping people healthy is at the heart of healthcare, and violence runs counter to that,” Pollack said. “It's our hope that quantifying the resources hospitals and health systems commit illustrates the enormity of this issue as a public health problem while giving hospitals the chance to highlight their efforts to keep their communities and workplaces safer.”
Source: FierceHealthcare
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Hospitals, healthcare workers, hospital violence, workplace assaults
Healthcare workers are at significant risk for workplace violence. Data shows that between 2011 and 2013, nearly 75 percent of workplace assaults took place in healthcare settings. This is among the risks that hospitals need to plan for.
