Armed guards, panic buttons: The changes coming to one Georgia hospital system

ATLANTA — Physical attacks, death threats and verbal abuse have been on the rise against nurses, doctors and other workers in health care settings. That fact made the news during the pandemic. But when the pandemic leveled off, the violence didn’t, according to health care officials who spoke in Atlanta this week.

The attacks happen “even more now,” Wellstar Health System CEO Candice Saunders told a reporter at the Health Connect South Conference in Atlanta Wednesday.

“It’s a major threat to the workforce, and it’s something that we’re focused on every day,” Saunders said.

As a result, Saunders said Wellstar has begun implementing security measures, which patients and visitors will see. Those include armed guards in Wellstar locations; visitors no longer being able to enter freely and wander, and installing panic buttons for workers everywhere, from hospitals to clinics to doctor’s offices.

For workers who see patients outside hospital and clinic settings, Wellstar is investigating solutions like remote monitoring and even predictive AI that might forecast the risk for violence.

Wellstar Health System is one of the largest hospital systems in Georgia, with 11 hospitals, five health parks and more than 300 medical offices spread over mostly the northern part of the state. Wellstar emergency rooms saw about 800,000 patients last year, Saunders said.

Wellstar learned from a comprehensive assessment of the safety threat that “Yes, the ERs are high risk in our care settings, but so are doctor’s offices, so are urgent care, so are home care settings,” Saunders said.

Wellstar officials said the causes appear to be lingering mental health impacts from the pandemic, combined with increasing numbers of patients and visitors returning to health care settings.

This produces a Catch-22, research says. Front-line health care workers decide it’s not worth the stress anymore and quit. Then that worsens staffing shortages. That leads to longer wait times. Waiting, grief, the impression of rushed or poor care, and confusion can be triggers for the outbursts.

A survey by National Nurses United of data gathered from nearly 1,000 nurses working around the country in 2023 found that 81.6% of nurses have experienced at least one type of workplace violence in the past year. The violence they reported ranged from physical abuse to verbal threats and being pinched or scratched.

The union also reported the violence is exacerbating the health care staffing crisis: 6 in 10 RNs report having changed or left their job or profession or considered leaving their job due to workplace violence.

CEOs of three major Georgia health systems were unanimous at the conference panel that the shortage of health care workers remains a huge problem. To address it, they’ve each invested in educational institutions to train more, hoping they’ll stay in Georgia and come to work at their companies.

“We always have a deficit of nurses and other clinicians,” said Scott Steiner, CEO of Phoebe Putney Health System of southwest Georgia.

“We turn down patients each and every day,” said Neil Pruitt, CEO of the skilled nursing and senior living company Pruitt Health. “Not because we don’t have open beds. But because we don’t have the staff available.”

As a result, hospitals desperate to recruit are taking action. But Wellstar is going far beyond the now-common training for workers on personal safety and techniques for de-escalating tense situations.

“It’s been a huge investment,” Saunders said of the new security measures. “But then if there is an event, then we have a very, very rapid response, like we do for a heart attack in the hospital.”

“But I can’t emphasize enough how this is affecting the health and well being well-being of our health care workers today,” she said, “and is something that all of us need to be aware of.”