HAP Achievement Awards: WellSpan Health

February 22, 2021

HAP’s Achievement Awards showcase exceptional programs throughout Pennsylvania’s hospital community. This week, HAP is proud to recognize WellSpan Health for its system-wide initiatives to protect staff from workplace violence.

WellSpan Health received HAP’s Optimal Operations Award for its project, Workplace Violence Prevention within a Multi-Hospital Organization: Interdisciplinary, Collaborative Approach to Achieving “Systemness."

Beginning during 2018, WellSpan Health carefully developed a series of coordinated strategies to address workplace violence across the organization. As part of this effort, the health system created new behavior emergency response teams featuring interdisciplinary staff trained in verbal de-escalation. These new teams helped implement new screening processes and proactive behavioral huddles when a patient is acutely agitated, aggressive, or violent. The hospital system also streamlined its education and workplace violence prevention processes, forming committees devoted to this important topic.

Among the key takeaways from the project:

• Interdisciplinary engagement locally and within corporate groups results in highly successful interventions
• Teaching conflict management, personal safety, management of patients with neurocognitive impairments, trauma-informed care, and verbal de-escalation skills provides tremendous benefits for patients, staff, and the organization as a whole
• The project provided the hospital teams with the tools and resources needed to mitigate and manage risks

Through its efforts, WellSpan Health decreased staff injuries due to violence at work, provided valuable educational opportunities for staff, and reduced the costs associated with workplace violence. The system also gained important insights about the triggers most frequently associated with behavioral events.

Congratulations to WellSpan Health for its outstanding commitment to protect staff from the threat of workplace violence. Learn more about this effort as well as the other 2020 award-winning programs at HAP’s website.

Questions about the HAP Achievement Awards may be directed to HAP Member Services at (717) 561-5359.