Data-Driven Approach May Reduce Violence to Hospital Workers

A worksite intervention using unit-level data on violent events can lead to lower risks of patient-to-worker violence and injury to hospital staff, suggests a study in the January Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Violence from patients is a significant occupational hazard for hospital employees. The study intervention was designed as a data-driven approach to assessing and lowering the risk of patient-to-worker violence and injuries. “This approach standardizes violence surveillance and risk analysis, but gives hospital units the flexibility and autonomy to use their own data to drive the violence prevention process,” the researchers write.