Not all ideas will work out when reducing violence
Despite the overall success of the violence reduction program at Atascadero (CA) State Hospital, the team had a few false starts, says Colleen Carney Love, DNSc, RN, director of the clinical safety project.
"If we had taken our first blush ideas, we would have come up with some crazy schemes," she says. "We first thought we needed more officers, metal detectors, maybe even build a wall in the dining area. We weren’t thinking outside the box. Fortunately, we kept going and eliminated those ideas as we went along."
The team also considered providing meals on the patients’ housing units, instead of bringing them to the dining room for meals. That was prompted by data that showed the incidence of violence was lower on weekends when patients were allowed more freedom to skip meals and vary mealtimes. Providing meals on the housing units proved too labor-intensive, and some patients did not like being kept in the same area for meals.
In the end, the team’s safety recommendations were considered a major success, as evidenced by the sharp reduction in injuries and also by the hearty endorsement from the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
"We got Accreditation with Commendation, no small feat for a public sector industry," Carney Love says. "Our experience shows that you can tackle a problem that a lot of people see as an inevitable part of the job."
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