The Complete Workplace Violence Prevention Program

The H.R. 1195 Workplace Violence Prevention in Healthcare and Social Services legislation, The Joint Commission, and CMS recommend a programmatic approach to workplace violence prevention. There are very specific requirements, such as a workplace violence prevention planning committee. This is NOT the risk committee, as that committee focuses on ALL risks to the facility or operations. The workplace violence committee is just that, the workplace violence committee.

• There is to be a single person identified as ultimately responsible for the program. However, the committee is to be made up of a representative from every department and should be at the worker level.
• The next function is the facility workplace violence probability walk through. This is a physical walk around your facility, noting the problematic areas that could either not allow for distancing or escape or cause for higher stress levels through overcrowding. This walkthrough would be best completed with a security professional who has a working knowledge of these areas. The person or organization could be your local law enforcement or private security consultant.
• After the committee walkthrough, the employee workplace violence surveys should be sent out to all employees. This survey asks questions of the employees on their personal experiences with reported or not reported workplace violence events. The average time for this process should be no more than two weeks. While this process is being completed, the person identified as the committee chair should be collecting data from all sources for past workplace violence events. And more steps