Summer Fall 2017

13 Summer/Fall 2017 The collaborative came about in 2014 as both workplace violence and injuries from unsafe patient handling methods were on the rise. In addition to the increasing prevalence of workplace violence in hospitals, injuries were increasing too. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that workers in hospitals had injury and illness rates nearly double those of workers in private industry. Many of those injuries —and many of those that are most severe—come when workers are trying to move patients. “It’s the most disabling injury in healthcare,” said Lynda Enos, an occupation health nurse and certified professional ergonomist who was hired to head up the WSI. “I’ve seen so many people under age 30 lose their careers as a result. There’s no safe technique. The human spine is just not designed to move another human.” For the collaborative, five different hospitals were selected for the safe patient handling pilot and five were chosen for the workplace violence pilot. Harney District Hospital was chosen for both. Enos said the approach for both pilots was the same in all of the hospitals. It started with assessing each hospital’s organizational culture, followed by gathering data from various incident logs and safety surveys. There were also new surveys with employees, as well as walk-throughs sizing up the layout of each facility. For the safe patient handling pilot, there was also a day where employees could test out an array of different lifts and other equipment to see what worked best. LaRochelle said Grand Ronde now has lifts in almost every room in the hospital. The initiative also is developing a tool kit that will be broadly available to hospitals across the state later this year so that they can take the initiative themselves to decrease injuries related to unsafe patient handling. “The over-arching goal,” Enos said, “is to have it so hospitals can do this on their own.” On the workplace violence side, both LaRochelle and Wells said incidents have been climbing in recent years. Much of that stems from increasing problems with drugs, alcohol and mental health issues. Neither hospital had much in the way of a formal policy for workplace violence, and both had little to no security and several areas of vulnerability inside and outside their facilities. “We had a combative patient policy,” LaRochelle said. “If there was a problem, it would be announced overhead and anyone who was able to come help could, but that was about it.” Working with the WSI led both hospitals to hire regular security staff and make other changes. Enos helped Harney develop a better and more accessible reporting form, and Harney added more exterior lighting and some improved video equipment. Other improvements are also on the horizon for both hospitals. Budget, staff and time constraints all play a role in how soon those might happen, but the changes made so far have been more than welcome. Toolkits are on the way for the violence side of the initiative, as well. “It was a ray of light when this opportunity came along,” LaRochelle said.  H

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Nzc3ODM=