Written by: Amy Rock, Campus Safety’s Senior Editor

The Joint Commission is seeking comments on its proposed new and revised standards for workplace violence prevention in hospitals and critical access hospital accreditation programs.

“The new and revised Joint Commission standards provide a framework to guide hospitals in developing strong workplace violence prevention systems,” according to the nonprofit healthcare accreditation organization’s release. “The standards address defining workplace violence and developing a leadership structure, policies and procedures, reporting systems, post-incident strategies, training, and education to decrease workplace violence.”

The new standards call for hospitals to have a workplace violence prevention program led by a designated individual but developed by a multidisciplinary team. As part of the program, hospitals would have to provide training, education and resources for the prevention of workplace violence to leadership, staff, and licensed practitioners “as appropriate to their roles and responsibilities.”

The training must be provided within 90 days of hire, annually and ongoing, and would include the following:

• What constitutes workplace violence
• Education on the roles and responsibilities of leadership, clinical staff, security personnel, and external law enforcement
• Training in de-escalation, nonphysical intervention skills, physical intervention techniques, and response to emergency codes
• Reporting and investigating incidents such as injuries, illness, spills, and fire safety problems

The newly proposed requirements will also demand an annual worksite analysis, including a proactive analysis of the worksite, an investigation of the hospital’s workplace violence events, and an analysis of how the program’s policies and procedures, training, education and environmental design reflect current practices and conform to applicable laws and regulations.

Comments on the new proposed requirements must be submitted by February 16. Here are three ways you can submit your comments:

• Submit your comments through the online survey, which will take approximately 30 minutes to complete
• Submit your comments via the online form
• Submit your comments via mail

In September, the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS) reported that in 2019, Type 2 assaults — including patient-on-staff and visitor-on-staff incidents — jumped 25%. The report also found the vast majority of workplace violence incidents (85%) over the past eight years were Type 2.

Additionally, IAHSS determined aggravated assaults more than doubled compared to the previous year.

This article appeared on Campus Safety and is shared with consent: https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/hospital/joint-commission-workplace-violence-prevention/