Workplace Safety Initiative

According to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, two of the leading causes of health care worker injuries are manual patient lifting and workplace violence. Musculoskeletal disorder injuries are generally due to overexertion related to repeated manual patient handling activities, often involving heavy manual lifting associated with transferring and repositioning patients and working in extremely awkward postures. The consequences of work-related musculoskeletal injuries among health care workers are substantial both to the workers themselves and to employers.

Meanwhile, health care and social assistance workers are nearly five times more likely to be injured and require time away from work as a result of workplace violence. Oregon’s hospitals are committed to a culture of safety and believe that no incidence of violence should be tolerated.

To help address these issues, Hospital Association of Oregon convened the Workplace Safety Initiative (WSI) Work Group in 2014 to find ways to collaboratively work on solutions. Work group members included representatives from SEIU Local 49, the Oregon Nurses Association, and representatives from several Oregon member hospitals. Lynda Enos, RN, BSN, MS, COHN-S, CPE, Ergonomics/Human Factors Consultant, HumanFit, LLC was the consultant working directly with the pilot hospitals, including writing the WPV toolkit and the SPH tools.

The goals of the WSI project are to:

Identify and implement evidence-based programs to reduce injuries from patient handling and workplace violence and foster sustainable cultural change.
Strengthen relationships with partner organizations around health care worker and patient safety issues.
Disseminate lessons learned and tools developed to all hospitals in Oregon to assist implementation of sustainable effective workplace safety programs.

To reach these goals, the group developed a pilot project working with Oregon hospitals. Volunteer hospitals of varying sizes from across the state participated in the safe patient handling project or the Workplace Violence Prevention project. The work with these pilot hospitals directly informed the materials provided below.

Workplace Violence Prevention Toolkit

This comprehensive toolkit, is in use at hospitals across Oregon and has been adapted and adopted by hospitals and health care organizations across the country.

Evaluate the workplace violence program and individual violence prevention practices at their facility or within their organization, against current best practices in violence prevention.
Identify and engage stakeholders and enhance the culture of worker and patient safety.
Develop or strengthen their workplace violence program and policy by identifying process that can be implemented to manage or control violence, and can address the risk of violence proactively.

NOTE: Version 2.0 of the Workplace Violence Prevention Toolkit was released in March 2020. See a comprehensive list of updates here. The toolkit is in use at hospitals across Oregon and has been adapted and adopted by hospitals and health care organizations across the country.

WPV Individual Sections & Tools

Workplace Violence Prevention Sections	Tools
Introduction	Background Introduction to WPV toolkit WPV Program Suggested Sequence of Action Lessons Learned from the WSI WPV Project (Governors’ Occupational Safety and Health Conference, 2017) Acknowledgement, Disclaimer and Copyright
Section 1: Understanding Workplace Safety	1a – Risk Factors for WPV New Tool 1b – Cross reference of Oregon & Washington WPV laws New Tool
Section 2: Getting Started	2a – Hospital Master Data Spreadsheet Template (Excel) New Tool 2b – Injury Data Report Summary (Word) 2c – Calculating Direct & Indirect Injury Costs (Excel) 2d – Analyzing Injury Data and Direct Costs 2e – Tips for Effective Committees 2f – Sample Project Charter (Word)
Section 3: Hazard Identification and Assessment	3a – WPV Gap Analysis (Word) 3a – WPV Gap Analysis (Excel) 3b – WPV Employee Survey (Word) 3c – Employee Survey Report Outline (Word) 3d – Employee Survey Summary Report (Word) 3e – Employee Survey Marketing Flyer (Word) 3f – Safety and Security Checklist (Excel) 3f – Safety and Security Checklist 3g – Prioritizing Level of Risk for WPV and Solutions (Word) 3h – Tips for Choosing Solutions (Word) 3i – Sample Project Plan Template (Excel)
Section 4: Developing the WPV Program	4a – Communications Plan (Word) 4b – WPV Program Policy (Word) 4c – Program Plan Summary (Word)
Section 5: Hazard Abatement	5a – Risk Assessment Tool (Word) 5b – Incident Report (Word) 5c – Management of Difficult Behavior Flow Chart (Word) 5d – Code Grey Debrief Form (Word) 5e – Example of Hospital Signage Violence Prevention (Word) 5f – Job Description for Contract Security Officer (Word) 5g – Behavioral Health Rapid Response Teams New Tool 5h – Deescalation Techniques New Tool
Section 6: Education and Training	6a – Education and Training Plan
Section 7: Implementing the WPV Program
Section 8: Evaluating the WPV Program	8a – Program Measurement Plan
Section 9: Sustaining the WPV Program
Section 10: Additional Resources	July 2022 Update: Additional Reference and Resources

For more information regarding the Workplace Safety Initiative, please contact Katie Harris at kharris@oregonhospitals.org or 503-479-6027.

Internet Citation: Workplace Violence In Healthcare: A Toolkit For Prevention And Management. Content Last Reviewed March 2020. Oregon Association Of Hospitals Research & Education Foundation, Lake Oswego, OR.

WPV Reproduction And Use Of Materials

Permission is granted to use such copyrighted material solely for non-commercial, instructional, personal, or scholarly purposes. The material may be used and incorporated into other workplace safety and health programs on the condition that no fee may be charged for the subsequent use or adaptation of the material. Use of the material for any other purpose, particularly commercial use, without the prior, express written permission of the copyright owner/s is prohibited.

For organization and entities that are not hospitals in Oregon, it is requested that you notify the Oregon Association of Hospitals Research and Education Foundation (email Katie Harris at kharris@oregonhospitals.org) prior to using the copyrighted materials.

Internet Citation: Workplace Violence in Health Care: A Toolkit for Prevention and Management. Content last reviewed March 2020. Oregon Association of Hospitals Research & Education Foundation, Lake Oswego, OR.

WPV Toolkit Additional Resources

The latest resource document, updated Jan. 2024, is available here.