Psychiatry, It's A Killing.: Hospital Violence

Showing posts with label Hospital Violence. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Hospitals Experiencing Soaring Violence - From Staff As Often As Patients?

If this weaponized, political junk medicine didn't have so many extra legal and flat out Illegal, State Sanctioned and Courtroom tolerated cut outs,

Therapeutic Jurisprudence: F**k The Law: We Do As We Damn Well Please

to protect itself from the civil and criminal prosecutions it deserves, . . .

madinamerica;

January 13, 2015

An "epidemic of violence against health care workers plagues hospitals" as "hospital administrations and the judicial system do little to prevent assaults against nurses and other caregivers by patients," reported Scientific American. Conversely, the same day, The Guardian reported "a hidden outbreak," as sexual violence by UK hospital staff against psychiatric patients "soars."

"In a 2014 survey, almost 80 percent of nurses reported being attacked on the job within the past year," reported Scientific American. "Health-care workers experience the most nonfatal workplace violence compared to other professions by a wide margin, with attacks on them accounting for almost 70 percent of all nonfatal workplace assaults causing days away from work in the U.S., according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics."

The article linked the assaults to "people experiencing psychosis or other mental crises" and people with dementia. However, Scientific American commented that much of the violence was "less explainable"; for example, one survey showed "almost 50 percent came from patients and family members who were drunk or on drugs."

The Guardian, meanwhile, obtained records through the Freedom of Information Act that "show a 50% rise in reports of sexual violence [against patients] in hospitals since 2011. It includes a total of at least 157 rape allegations." The information obtained also showed another 1,615 violent sexual attacks against patients. "But prosecutors have said that up to 90% of sexual abuse goes unreported, suggesting the true figure could be much higher," reported The Guardian.

"Most police forces were unable to provide a firm breakdown of the types of hospitals where rapes and sexual abuse had been reported," stated The Guardian. "However, the Met, which accounted for 20% of all reports, said the issue was a particular problem in mental health units, with a significant proportion of alleged victims identified as vulnerable due to mental health problems."

All of the cases described by The Guardian involved hospital staff attacking psychiatric patients.

"In another case, a mental health patient described psychiatric hospitals as a 'playground for predators', after she was raped up to 60 times by a member of staff," reported The Guardian. "The woman had been taken to Little Brook hospital in Kent after a breakdown and was warned she would be sectioned if she tried to leave. She described her ordeal to the BBC earlier this year. 'At times I was on a very heavy amount of Valium, not to where I was unconscious, but the sedative combined with my already defeated self, I was like putty. He would pull the covers back, do what he had to do and leave, all very quickly. I didn’t move.'"

Epidemic of Violence against Health Care Workers Plagues Hospitals (Scientific American, December 31, 2014)

Sexual violence soars in UK hospitals (The Guardian, December 31, 2014)

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Hospitals Combat Violence Against Workers

fiercehealthcare;

Communication vital to defusing sticky situations with angry patients

September 23, 2014 | By Katie Sullivan

Angry patients and violence against healthcare workers plague hospitals across the country, as organizations try to defuse tension in a high-stakes environment.

Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota saw four security lockdowns in six months, with the latest incident on Sunday night involving someone outside of the hospital with a weapon, WCCO 4 news reported. Now the hospital, along with community partners, work to protect both patients and hospital staff.

Identifying triggers of patient violence can help hospital leaders find potential intervention targets, according to a study published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Researchers found that some catalysts for patient violence against healthcare workers included the use of needles and restraints, patient discomfort, cognitive impairment, physical transfers and patients who demand to leave. Hospitals can train staff to recognize patient violence indicators and educate them as to how to best mitigate the situation, the study found.

Violent patients and vulnerable hospital staff are a dangerous combination, one the federal Patients' Bill of Rights needs to address, Anne Skomorowsky, Ph.D., a psychiatrist at Columbia University and a Public Voices fellow with the OpEd Project, wrote in an opinion piece in today's Boston Globe.

"The human rights perspective acknowledges that healthcare workers have the same inherent rights to safety as do patients," Skomorowsky wrote. "The healthcare worker is encouraged to report, document, and demand response from the institution and the government to prevent violent and threatening behavior."

Communication could be the key to defusing angry, potentially violent patients. When the healthcare deviates from patients' expectations of error-free, streamlined care, providers can actually exacerbate the situation by failing to communicate properly, according to a Huffington Post blog post.

This communication failure can prompt extreme anger and even litigation, author Ruth Tarantine, DNP, R.N., the chair of online nursing graduate programs and nursing faculty at a private university, wrote.

Healthcare leaders and practitioners must practice good communication, validate patients feelings and hear their concerns and complaints, she said. "Nothing defuses patient anger better than an empathetic healthcare provider who is willing to acknowledge and discuss the shortcomings of healthcare, admitting that healthcare processes and providers need to improve," Tarantine wrote.

To learn more:
- here's Tarantine's blog post
- read the study abstract
- check out the Boston Globe's opinion piece
- here's the WCCO article

Related Articles:
Are hospitals responsible for preventing workplace violence?
Nurses, emergency department workers often targets of violence
Violence against hospital nurses prompts calls for education, planning
Violence plagues healthcare facilities across the country
Fed up with violent incidents, hospitals seek to balance security with patient care

Thank You Ms Sullivan and Fierce Healthcare.

"some catalysts for patient violence against healthcare workers included the use of needles and restraints, patient discomfort, cognitive impairment, physical transfers and patients who demand to leave"

Needles, restraints, and patients who demand to leave?

D'ya Think that maybe, just Maybe, if Hospitals weren't up to their eyeteeth in Violent, Felony Assaults of Patients they might not have so much of this blowback Violence against Hospital Workers?

Even beyond all the Incurable Mind Disease Fraud Hospitals make so much money inflicting, Perhaps, their Legal Staffs ought to send them a Memo?

The Bill of Rights – Full Text

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Amendment VII

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Amendment 14, US Constitution 1868

http://behavenet.com/search?keys=Alcohol

Study: 15% Of Surgeons Abuse Alcohol

D'ya Think that JUST MAYBE, if Hospital Workers weren't Above the Law and Behaving Accordingly, then Patients wouldn't get angry?

http://www.csam-asam.org/sites/default/files/pdf/newsletter/csamfall07.pdf

Human Rights or Civil Rights? US18C13 Sec 241 & 242.

Patients are "Incurable". Doctors, and just about everybody Else selling Incurable, qualify for a whitewash/Cure.

And how about those Return customers, the Repeat Patients?

Suicides Rise Dramatically With Increasing Psychiatric Care

Why on Earth would Hospital Workers need to Combat Patients?

Aside from the fact that what they're doing is flat out illegal.

Violence (15)

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Perspectives: A Govt. Healthcare Consumer & Govt. Healthcare Providers

First up is Michelle Malkin's interview of a VA/Govt. Healthcare patient.

CNSNews;
A Fed-Up Veteran Blasts VA's 'Lie, Delay, Deny', Abyss

By Michelle Malkin

June 18, 2014 - 5:31 AM

"They don't care."

As Obama administration officials pivot like haywire jewelry-box ballerinas to divert attention away from the nationwide Veterans Affairs disgrace, a reader who has been fighting the system urged me to urge Capitol Hill and the American public to stay focused.

This former Special Forces soldier and medic served his country for 25 years. He worked in the health care field managing military field medical clinics. "I know how health care is supposed to run, even in austere or low-budget environments," he says. And in his nightmarish, ongoing experience, the VA is an epic, deadly, monstrous failure. He minces no words: "They're getting billions of dollars, and they treat veterans like s-t. There's no accountability, no buy-in, among civilian unionized employees. We mean nothing to them. It's like going to the DMV for your health care."

Over the past four years, the veteran tells me, he has been under direct VA care for two major line-of-duty-related injuries, including one combat-related injury. One of the medical centers that treated him — or rather mistreated him and maltreated him — is the Coatesville, Pa., VA. It's the same facility where four vets died due to medical malpractice, leading to nearly $1.4 million in settlements to vets' families, according to The Center for Investigative Reporting.

The harrowing cases included two fatal failures to monitor patients, improper management of a psychiatric patient, and wrongful diagnosis or misdiagnosis of a patient.

These details are all too familiar to my reader. "I have been misdiagnosed, had a missed diagnosis, and had delays of care lasting months," he says. "My records have been lost, changed, split and mismanaged." He has experienced firsthand the same "slow-walking" of care that millions of other VA patients have encountered and scores have died from — a systemic modus operandi of "lie, delay, deny."

The vet gets a catch in his voice as he relates a horrible anecdote. After refusing to return to the Coatesville facility and seeking treatment at another VA clinic one day, he became nauseous. Instead of allowing him to lie down on a gurney, a nurse made him vomit outside so he wouldn't soil the bed. He believes the office was open not to treat patients, but as a front for nurses to pick up extra shifts. He has encountered similar degrading and condescending treatment across the VA system.

When he appealed for help and advocacy within the system, the veteran was met with a stone wall of "Not My Job"-ism. Through denials of care, contraindicated medications, repeated mistakes and delays of pharmacy items, he endured callousness, humiliation and stigmatization. "When I get angry, they call me 'crazy.'" Classic blame-the-victim tactics from the VA abusers.

Big Government politicians want to throw more funding at the VA, as usual. The veteran offers a scathing reality check: "There is ample money to address the needs of American veterans," he says. "The problem is far deeper and more dangerous than just secret waiting lists. The VA almost killed me; my health is worse now than it was when I entered care; my quality of life and living conditions have been nothing short of horrific as I have waited years for adjudication of my benefits case, which in the end was botched."

Again, the vet refuses to candy-coat the roots of the festering VA scandal: "The problem is not just waiting lists. It is utter fraudulent expenditure of enormous budgets, not on veterans, but on overpaid lazy, surly civilian employees that often make it clear that a) they do not like veterans and b) that the veteran is actually a nuisance. The problem is endemic, at every level, in the VA. The unfortunate fact of the matter is this: Veterans have become incidental to the process at the VA."

The system is "an enormous cash cow, warehousing tens of thousands of overpaid employees" who "keep the gravy-train rolling." The vet has a plea on behalf of all of his brothers and sisters who are drowning in the VA's "lie, delay, deny" abyss:

"Please, don't let this die."

Thank You Ms Malkin and CNS.

Now let's hear from Govt. Healthcare Providers:

Healthcare Workers From Around Bay Area Demand Action On Epidemic of Hospital Violence.
Posted by SEIU1021 on May 9, 2014

Attacks at Alameda Health Systems and San Francisco General Hospital Spark Outrage and Calls for Comprehensive Changes to Protect Patients and Caregivers

Oakland, CA—Registered nurses and healthcare workers from across the Bay Area are protesting a growing epidemic of violent assaults against caregivers today, joining with workplace safety experts and concerned community members outside Highland Hospital in Oakland.

The healthcare workers are calling for improved protections for staff and patients at Alameda Health System (AHS), which has seen a jump in incidents of reported workplace violence in recent years, up to 76 different attacks last year. AHS runs Highland, John George, and Fairmont Hospitals along with community health clinics. John George Psychiatric Hospital was the sight of a killing of a doctor – beaten to death in a private examination room – nearly a decade ago. While that assault led to a temporary increase in security, the conditions there and at other Bay Area hospitals has since deteriorated, making healthcare one of the most dangerous occupations. RNs at other Bay Area hospitals have been killed at work in recent years and are calling on the state legislature to take action.

The healthcare workers and community allies are calling on AHS, and all regional health systems, to “Break the Silence—Stop the Violence.” Specifically, they are calling on AHS to; increase security staff and have programs in place to prevent weapons from brought in, including the installation of metal detectors at some sites; enhance staffing for patients with a history of violence; and involve front-line caregivers in the efforts to respond to the epidemic of violence.

The caregivers have been working for months to establish such protections in their contract without success. Their union, SEIU1021, is sharply critical of management’s response, particularly in light of the history AHS has had with substandard prevention programs.

Ariel Edwards, a certified nursing assistant at Fairmont Hospital spoke at the rally and said, “A couple of years ago, I was used as a shield by a doctor against a violent patient. The patient punched me and I had to be taken to the hospital. I’ve since developed vertigo and have nightmares about being assaulted on the job. Management at AHS can do something about it now.”

Charice Johnson, also a certified nursing assistant at Fairmont, said that, “One morning I was helping a patient get out of bed and get ready for the day. He was upset and kicked me in the stomach. At this time, I was pregnant with twins. I’ve been scratched, kicked, and pushed. I’ve been verbally sexually harassed at work. Management needs to take our safety seriously.”

“As nurses and healthcare workers, we have the responsibility of protecting the patients under our care, but management has the responsibility of making sure that we’re safe so that we can focus on helping save lives and helping people get better,” said Dave Fleming, a registered nurse at San Francisco General Hospital, who’s experienced violence on the job. “It’s time management stop ignoring the problem and start making real changes that make our hospitals and clinics safer for everyone.”

“Our health and safety is not supposed to be for sale. That’s why employers are legally required to provide safe workplaces, and to deal with hazards like the spectrum of violence,” added Dorothy Wigmore, the occupational health specialist for Worksafe, a non-profit health and safety organization. “Almost all violent incidents can be predicted and prevented. We’ve known that for years. Yet, for many workers, the message is the opposite: ‘It’s part of your job’ and/or ‘What did you do?’ It’s way past time for employers to deal with this very real and important hazard, especially in health care. Silence is not the answer.”

SEIU 1021 represents 1,500 nurses at the San Francisco Department of Public Health and over 800 nurses and 1,500 respiratory therapists, medical clerks, social workers, certified nursing assistants and other healthcare workers at Alameda Health System’s Highland, John George, and Fairmont Hospitals and community health clinics.

KRON 4: Workplace Violence at AHS
SF Weekly: Healthcare Workers Fed Up with Violence at Hospitals
NBC Bay Area: Healthcare Workers Demand More Security at Bay Area Hospitals

Now, is there a Problem getting wrapped around the disparity of views here?

Let's call on Contestant # 3, the National Institutes of Mental Health to piece out a correlation:

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml#Intro

Mental Disorders in America

"Mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.1 When applied to the 2004 U.S. Census residential population estimate for ages 18 and older, this figure translates to 57.7 million people.2 Even though mental disorders are widespread in the population, the main burden of illness is concentrated in a much smaller proportion — about 6 percent, or 1 in 17 — who suffer from a serious mental illness.1 In addition, mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and Canada.3 Many people suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given time. Nearly half (45 percent) of those with any mental disorder meet criteria for 2 or more disorders, with severity strongly related to comorbidity.1

In the U.S., mental disorders are diagnosed based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV).4"

This is the US Federal Dept of Political Diseases, the NIMH.

26.2% IN ANY GIVEN YEAR.

So if Everyone in America gets a 'Mental Health' checkup, in just 4 years, Everyone Except those applying for work as Police Officers (because they have to PASS as 'Mentally Healthy' in order to Get the job) become Incurably 'Mentally Ill'.

And need 'Treatment' (at $21 hr just for starters) for their Incurables.

Violence (12)
http://psychroaches.blogspot.com/search/label/SEIU

SEIU Workers Demand San Francisco Raise Minimum Wage For CITY Workers To $21 An Hour

Then the Govt. through Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and his Eminence Emperor Obama will tell us All What to think and How to think, and which flavor of Psych Drug to Brain Damage ourselves with.

And all of our Police Officers will be Exempt, as agents of 'Change'.

And BTW;

The Drugs Don't Work (9)

So, . . . just so we're all clear on this 'Violence' in the Hospital Workplace thing, . .

California Purges Records of Mental Illness' in Nurses.

Discover the SEIU, Who Are They?

Let's Re-Discover Nursing itself, too.

Hospitals Report Only 1 % Of Patient Harm Events

Hospital Workers Don't Report 86% of Patient Harm Events.

BTW: We're awfully tired of seeing HC Workers call themselves "caregivers". What they're inflicting on patients isn't caring and they're Not giving Anything: not at $21 an hour.

And the Local Govt. Agencies entrusted with Hospital and Doctor Oversight:

State Med Boards Not Punishing Dangerous Docs.

But we'll all live happily ever after as soon as we dump ObamaCare because of the God Awful Fiasco it is Still hourly being revealed as, . . . and have the Govt. take over even More of Health Care under Single Payer: which is the implosion the whole mess was Designed to trigger from the start.

And on the off chance you've missed it so far:

National Institute of Mental Health: Violence Initiative: Junk Medicine In Jackboots

Your 26.2% Solution NIMH.

Why do you think so many young black men in America wind up in prison?

Check the link. Answer within.

Psychiatry, It's A Killing.