The Workplace Violence PAPER Tiger

UNINTENDED DANGERS OF CERTIFICATES AND MEETING REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS

“I meet the regulatory requirements.”…. “My program received a certificate.”

I have been hearing these two statements over the last several months and quite frankly I find them disturbing. As we have been tackling the massively complex healthcare workplace violence topic, there have been many hurdles to overcome. None of these hurdles are as prevalent as the well-meaning certificate program or regulatory standard. I’m sure by now you may be asking yourself what would lead me to this conclusion?

Our sole focus here at BluWater Security Services is healthcare workplace violence prevention. We have dedicated thousands of hours to researching and investigating the standards, materials, and program functionalities, to offer the most comprehensive program assistance and evaluation. While reviewing the latest iterations of several certificate programs and regulatory requirements, though the information was correct, it was not complete. There are key elements missing and those missing elements will lead to what we have today, a standard met, but no results.

If you look at your program and have checked all the required boxes but cannot identify at least the following:

1. Recuring workplace violence vulnerabilities
2. Consequences of the negative outcomes
3. Mitigation strategy that is driven by data and is supported by positive results
   

Then you may not have an effective program or other related issues such as over allocation of funds to ineffective security measures, or duplication of work.
It has also been said that security managers are finding their C-Suite leadership view the certificate or regulatory measures as the adequate response to the workplace violence epidemic. Sad to say, you may be placing a hurdle in your own way to affecting positive results from your workplace violence prevention program. I would encourage everyone to take a closer look at their workplace violence prevention program and answer these questions:

1. Is your program checking boxes?
2. How can you tell your program is having a positive impact on the workplace violence issue?
3. Is your program solely security based?
4. Other than the workplace violence prevention committee, how else is the non-security staff involved?

If you would like to discuss this post, please feel free to contact us at www.bwgsecurity.com