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Study: Violence down, but assaults up at hospitals

Hospital Safety Insider, July 7, 2016

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In 2013, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that over 70% of the 23,000 significant injuries resulting from assault at the workplace occurred in healthcare and social services settings.

In 2014, a Journal of Emergency Nursing survey found that 76% of nurses have experienced either verbal or physical abuse from patients and visitors.

Those are some sobering statistics, and they indicate that workplace violence in the healthcare industry has been on the rise. So when a 2015 study conducted by the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS) found that violent crime in hospitals had dropped by 68% in 2015, it raised some eyebrows.

The report, released by IAHSS in May 2016, follows trends from 2012 to 2015, and found that in 2015 the rates of "violent crimes" (i.e., murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) dropped to 0.9 per 100 beds in healthcare settings. This is a marked decrease from previous years, which saw violent crime rates in hospitals rise from two per 100 beds in 2012, 2.5 in 2013, and 2.8 in 2014.
   
This is an excerpt from the monthly healthcare safety resource Briefings on Hospital Safety. Subscribers can read the rest of the article here. Non-subscribers can find out more about the journal, its benefits, and how to subscribe by clicking here.
 

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