Hospital Violence

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St. Joe’s West 5th psychiatric hospital in Hamilton was once seen as a leader in workplace safety, but nurse attacks are on the rise, up over 40% in the last two years. Safety practices have been implemented at a hospital in Toronto that makes them the new leader in safety and it turns out St. Joe’s has been looking at their model for advice.

Michael Garron Hospital has zero tolerance for violence. Signs are up throughout the building, the nurses track patients with violent tendencies using wrist bands and warning signs are posted on patient doors. Irene Andress, the hospital’s Chief Nurse Executive says, “we have to ensure the safety of our patients and we have to ensure the safety of our staff.” Andress says front line staff are trained to de-escalate violence and if an attack happens, their personal alarms alert security immediately: “We have a well educated and responsive security team that are in house security team who work hand in glove as partners with their care providers.”

The hospital in Toronto says they encourage their nursing staff to come forward and report any attacks. We received an email from a nurse at St. Joe’s West 5th that says they’re discouraged from reporting any violence and bullied if they come forward to speak to their managers.

The President of the hospital says that’s not true. “I think that’s very unfortunate that nurse reached out to you anonymously there’s multiple processes in this hospital to enable staff to bring those matters to our attention.” Doctor David Higgins, the president of the hospital suggests the reported number of attacks are up because of their open policy to report violence.

“We’ve dramatically increased our reporting of events of assault and violence over the last two years by being very open and encouraging staff to report diligently on episodes of assault.”

Michael Garron Hospital confirms that they are working with St. Joe’s but Dr. Higgins says they won’t implement all of their practices. According the Higgins, their West 5th campus patients, families and staff are opposed to the wrist band tracking system saying labelling patients is concerning.

Currently the hospital is up on 24 charges from the Ministry of Labour as a result of the recent violent attacks and the hospital’s president says they continue to make changes.