Health-care professionals and partners from throughout British Columbia are discussing making workplaces safer at the Summit to Prevent Workplace Violence in Health Care being held in Richmond today.

“We’ve heard the concerns and know that workplace violence is stressful for staff and negatively impacts quality of care,” said Health Minister Terry Lake. “This summit provides a platform to explore what works, like the successful approach to violence prevention at St. Paul’s Hospital, and hear new ideas about how the overall system can be improved.”

The Ministry of Health invited health-care workers, unions and industry stakeholders to speak directly with the minister, health-authority leaders and ministry representatives on the issue of further protecting both staff and patients from violence in the health-care workplace.

“We called on government to bring together health professionals, employers and workplace safety experts for a summit on preventing violence in our health-care system. I am pleased the Minister of Health has answered our call, and I am optimistic that by bringing together key players to address the gaps between best practice standards and how they are practically applied across the province, we can make improvements in violence prevention that ultimately protect health-care workers and patients,” said Val Avery, president of the Health Sciences Association of BC, a health-care union representing 17,000 health science professionals in hospitals and community settings throughout B.C.

Participants are hearing first hand from frontline workers and research experts, discussing best practices, highlighting successful work already underway, and identifying ways B.C.’s health-care workplaces can be made safer, including proposals already put forward by the BC Nurses’ Union. The summit is intended to be a first step toward developing a collaborative action plan to address system gaps and create a more effective model of safety for staff and patients.

“Along with our health-authority partners, Fraser Health has worked hard to ensure staff in all areas of care are prepared to safely handle incidents of aggression or violence,  but we know there is more we can learn, ” said Michael Marchbank, Fraser Health CEO. “We look forward to this discussion on how we can make our facilities even safer for our dedicated health-care workers.”

Based on today’s discussions, an action plan will be developed in the coming weeks. The Summit to Prevent Workplace Violence in Health Care is taking place at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel in Richmond.

A background follows.

Media Contacts:

Laura Heinze
Media Relations Manager
Ministry of Health
250 952-1887 (media line)

BACKGROUNDER

Health and safety in action

• In January 2011, the Ministry of Health collaborated with health authorities, the Health Employees Association of BC, WorkSafe BC, unions, and frontline health-care workers to launch the $37-million Health and Safety in Action strategy, which includes the Provincial Violence Prevention Education program to ensure health-care workers’ safety.
• This program provides health-care workers and their managers the education and tools they need to prevent, defuse and/or deal with potentially violent situations to reduce their risk of injury and also to ensure that they feel safe in their workplaces.
• As of December 2014, almost 40,000 employees have completed the online violence prevention training modules and approximately 19,000 staff have completed the more in-depth classroom sessions.
• In addition, as part of the last round of bargaining with the Health Employees Association, an Occupation Health and Safety and Violence Prevention Committee was formed. One of the main areas of focus for this committee has been updating violence prevention curriculum and modules.
• The Ministry of Health has also implemented OHS Connect — an online community where anyone working in B.C. health care can collaborate on projects and share resources that deal with Occupational Health & Safety.
• Ministry of Health policy requires health authorities assess the risk for violence and aggression in all facilities, and ensure there are safety plans and programs in place based on the level of risk.
• Over the last three years, the number of code white calls has dropped from 4,307 to 3,749 — despite health authorities treating more and more patients each year.

Media Contacts:

Laura Heinze
Media Relations Manager
Ministry of Health
250 952-1887 (media line)