Missouri hospital to give staff panic buttons to protect them from violent patients

[Jilly_in_VA]

A Missouri hospital will be equipping its staff with panic buttons to protect them from violent patients following a startling rise in assaults, administrators said.

Cox Medical Center Branson, located about 44 miles from Springfield, said it was implementing the added protection after violent assaults by patients tripled in the last year. According to hospital data, total assaults rose from 40 to 123 and total injuries climbed from 17 to 78.

Assaults leading to injury increased from 42.5 percent to 63 percent, according to officials.

“When Public Safety response is critical and it’s not possible to get to a phone, person panic buttons fill a critical void,” said Alan Butler, who oversees public safety efforts at CoxHealth’s six hospitals and more than 80 clinics.

“Personal Panic Buttons (PPBs) are one more tool in the battle to keep our staff safe and further demonstrate this organization’s commitment to maintaining a safe work and care environment.”

The hospital first began using panic buttons last year in certain areas at Cox South due to incidents of workplace violence. The hospital will now expand the program to hundreds of employees at Cox Medical Center Branson.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/missouri-hospital-give-staff-panic-buttons-protect-them-violent-patients-n1280245
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About damn time, I'd say. In my career I was hit, kicked, scratched, shoved, and spit on....and I didn't work in the ER or psych, where a majority of assaults take place. The best you could do was write up an incident report and go back to work. The hospital would always side with the patient.

[Corgigal]

1. Oh hell no.

Give them dart guns. The kind you use on wild animals when you want to take a test on a lion.

[carpetbagger]

2. I've had a panic button for almost 20 years.

Multiple attempted mass shootings at the last hospital I worked at, one was prevented only by a psychiatrist engaging the safety of an assault rifle while struggling with a patient after a few shots were fired. Won't do a damn it of good, my police aren't everywhere and they only carry pistols.

[hlthe2b]

3. I can point out the obvious problem for many areas of the country--minimal security staff left.

So, you push the panic button, and no one is available to come? I know in the Atlanta area, at least one major hospital turned down the opportunity to have a mini police precinct on the premises--given their proximity (along with two other hospitals) to a MARTA station--they were afraid it would "send the wrong message to the upper crust highly insured clientele they were trying to attract." Boy, are staff suffering from that very short-sighted decision. No metal detectors either.

Colleagues in several states have expressed a similar situation. Denver and front-range CO hospitals seem a bit better off, security-wise, but patients/visitors are simply unpredictable and often out-of-control to a level never seen before.