Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9942-3203 : Elizabeth Donnelly

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-2024

Publication Title

Healthcare

Issue

12

Keywords

emergency medical services, occupational health and safety, paramedics, violence, workplace violence

Abstract

Paramedics are increasingly being subjected to violence, creating the potential for significant physical and psychological harm. Where a patient has a history of violent behavior, hazard flags—applied either to the individual, their residential address, or phone number—can alert paramedics to the possibility of violence, potentially reducing the risk of injury. Leveraging a novel violence reporting process embedded in the electronic patient care record, we reviewed violence reports filed over a thirteen-month period since its inception in February 2021 to assess the effectiveness of hazard flagging as a potential risk mitigation strategy. Upon reviewing a report, paramedic supervisors can generate a hazard flag if recurrent violent behavior from the patient is anticipated. In all, 502 violence reports were filed, for which paramedic supervisors generated hazard flags in 20% of cases (n = 99). In general, cases were not flagged either because the incident occurred at a location not amenable to flagging or because the supervisors felt that a hazard flag was not warranted based on the details in the report. Hazard flagging was associated with an increased risk of violence during subsequent paramedic attendance (Odds Ratio [OR] 6.21, p < 0.001). Nevertheless, the process appears to reliably identify persons who may be violent towards paramedics.

DOI

10.3390/healthcare12090909

ISSN

22279032

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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