December 02, 2021
Beginning Saturday, January 1, 2022, new Joint Commission regulations for workplace violence prevention will take effect for healthcare institutions they provide accreditation services to, such as TriHealth.
The Joint Commission is implementing these regulations to enhance worker and patient safety by focusing on workplace violence prevention, early detection and response. With training, awareness, the tracking of statistical data, hazardous vulnerability assessments (HVA) and incident classification, the regulations are similar to laws adopted in many states.
We’ll break down what the Joint Commission regulations mean for TriHealth as a health system and what they mean for each team member and physician.
What TriHealth Will Do to Meet Joint Commission Regulations
As a health system, TriHealth will take action to ensure we are compliant with the new workplace violence regulations by implementing a system-wide plan – The Workplace Violence Prevention Plan.
The great news is that TriHealth already offers a robust security and safety program with a full menu of services that meet many of the Joint Commission regulations and a Protective Services team that can respond to incidents and locations throughout the system.
As a part of the Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, TriHealth will:
- Perform system-wide hazardous vulnerability assessments with a strong focus on work areas identified as potentially high-risk for incidents of workplace violence, like Behavioral Health, Emergency Departments, the ICU and Mother-Baby units
- A committee with diverse representation from many key areas throughout the health system will hold regular meetings to assess performance in meeting plan objectives and conduct reviews of workplace violence incidents
- Refine and share the Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, including a reporting process
- Provide Workplace Violence Prevention Plan training to all team members, physicians and leaders
- Investigate and track incidents when they occur and implement solutions to address and prevent workplace violence
How Team Members Will Support the Workplace Violence Prevention Plan
Every team member, physician, and leader is responsible for supporting the Workplace Violence Prevention Plan and ensuring we have a safe place to work and care for patients. Your role will be to:
- Report incidents of workplace violence
- Watch out for upcoming training opportunities in 2022 Annual Mandatory Education training and unit specific meetings
- Check Bridge often for Workplace Violence Prevention Plan articles
- Report safety concerns and incidents of workplace violence, including threats, to Protective Services in a timely manner.
Questions?
Discuss any questions with your one-up leader. If you have suggestions for improvements, please contact Rich Cinfio, Director of Protective Services.
The Workplace Violence Prevention Plan is one more element that reinforces TriHealth’s culture of safety and transparency for our valued team members and physicians as well as our patients. Thank you for participating in the plan. It takes a team to make our work environment as safe as possible for all patients, visitors, team members and physicians.
This plan was developed with representation from TriHealth Protective Services, HR, Nursing, TPP, Employee Health, Legal & Risk, Corporate Education, Behavioral Health, the ED and more. We’ve been diligent in ensuring many voices and perspectives have weighed in on our plan.