The American Hospital Association released its last Hospitals Against Violence Advisory Group guidelines. The guidelines focus on community-based violence interventions.
The guidelines, titled "Building a Safe Workplace and Community", are designed to prevent and mitigate violence in the hospital and the community, according to an Oct. 15 news release. The framework provides strategies on culture of safety, violence intervention, trauma support and risk mitigation.
The last installment focuses on how hospitals can mitigate violence in the community. Here are four things to know:
1. When victims of community violence enter a hospital as a patient, it presents an opportunity for staff to engage in community violence intervention services.
"Hospitals and health systems play an important role in reaching victims and their social networks as they spend time in the hospital recovering from their injuries and hospital teams can be well-positioned to educate and connect patients to violence intervention programs and services," the report said.
2. Intervention programs can help prevent readmissions and need for additional care. They can also reduce hospital costs associated with violence related injuries. In 2020, violence-related injuries cost the industry over $950 billion, with the average cost for non-fatal violent injuries reaching $29,200.
3. Patients and families who survive violent injuries suffer long-term physical and psychological impacts, including impaired mobility and cognitive function, substance use disorder, depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
4. Hospital-based violence intervention programs identify patients at risk of repeat violent injury and connect them to hospital and community-based resources aimed at addressing underlying risk factors for violence. The first of these programs was launched in the 1980s, and today more than 40 programs operate across the country.