Q&A: Insufficient Security for Violent Patients
“Our hospital has increased the number of security per shift and sent more staff through CPI training, but we’re still not seeing much of a change in the outcomes that result from our behavioral health population.”
I would love to say that this question is unique, however, I’ve heard it from almost one hundred different hospitals I’m associated with or network through. With that said, just because I’ve seen this at other places doesn’t mean I know exactly how things work in your environment. I could certainly talk with you more outside of this platform if you need.
One of the problems here is that many medical facilities are taking a presentation approach with their CPI NCI (or other nonviolent crisis prevention training) instead of a training approach. What I mean by this is that the organization will send employees (including security) through a six to eight hour training session once every year or two and call their employees trained. It doesn’t work that way with learning any skill, but especially one that is associated with injury consequences. As a self-defense instructor and a CPI instructor, it is my opinion that CPI is much more difficult to teach. The reason I say this is because with self-defense you really just have to beat up the “bad guy” better than he can beat up you (or escape as a primary option, but you get the point). With CPI, you not only have to protect yourself, but you also are attempting to protect the physical and emotional well-being of the person in crisis. Now with any skill, much less one this complex, it’s not wise to “present” to you staff once or twice a year for six to eight hours and call it “training.” Staff needs to be given a thorough tried and true training that follows them throughout the year between renewals.
Another issue I see here is the idea that having more security is the solution to the behavioral health crisis. With the amount of behavioral health patients coming into facilities around the US, it’s just not reasonable to expect security to solve the problem. The average fight lasts 30 seconds. Depending on the size of the facility and placement of guards, the security response is one to two minutes. With this information, the staff will get pummeled anywhere from 2 to 4 times before security is able to intervene. Unless of course the facility posts a guard at the door of each patient flagged as a having violent tendencies. This strategy would become astronomically expensive fast, which will cut into resources for other things the hospital needs to run. Also consider, that very few CPI holds can be accomplished with just one person, which means we would have to post two, three, or four guards at each of the doors with patients who have violent tendencies. Before you know it, your hospital will look more like Ft. Knox than a medical facility.
Also consider that the training security receives for handling patients with violent tendencies is exactly the same as the training medical staff receive for handling patients with violent tendencies. Security officers are required to de-escalate, disengage, physically hold, or utilize soft restraints from their training to manage patients in crisis, just like the medical professional. The idea that the security professional has a different trick up their sleeve for this isn’t accurate. Security is just as capable of handling these situation as medical staff with the proper focus on training over presentation.
There is a way to better equip your staff with the skills and resources needed to handle this growing issue. We can help. Reach out to me at [email protected], call at (682) 556-0381 or fill out a contact form on the front page of https://wpvassociates.com.
We also offer free training to for medical professional through our Serve the Servants Project at https://www.gofundme.com/f/serve-the-servants-project. Please consider donating or spreading the word so we can help prevent this type of workplace violence.
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