Fears of being shot, stabbed, punched, or kicked in the workplace sounds like the everyday concerns of a law enforcement officer. But the reality is that these are very real concerns healthcare professionals face every day in the nation’s most violent industry.

Data shows that American healthcare workers now suffer more nonfatal injuries from workplace violence than workers in any other profession, including law enforcement. Couple this statistic with the fact that 70% of individuals who enter a hospital every day are not employees and the need for robust visitor management controls becomes evident.

The good news is that such controls designed to prevent physical violence in healthcare already exist – and they are paving the way for a safer industry in more ways than one.

Automated, intelligent Visitor Identity Management (VIM) solutions effectively ensure that visitors are properly vetted before allowing access to the hospital while automatically detecting anyone who is on a watchlist or should have terminated access. This allows the hospital the flexibility to control their environment, set up policies and procedures as their environment changes, limit visitors per patient/floor/unit, and allow approved patient visitors or in-patients to quickly check in utilizing offsite pre-screening features.

Think of it as a similar solution to that of airport check-ins and no-fly lists. Prior to flying, all travelers must show proper identification before boarding a plane. If a traveler causes issues or disruption following check-in, they will be banned from flying or arrested.

VIM solutions enable the same kind of control for healthcare. If a visitor is causing trouble or has made verbal/physical threats, that visitor is no longer allowed to gain access to a patient or that specific hospital. What’s more, VIM solutions can pre-screen visitors prior to a visit and notify security teams whenever any visitor matching a watchlist identity is detected, reducing the opportunity for a violent incident.

A VIM system can quickly and simply reduce the risk of healthcare violence by implementing the following processes and making the following assurances:

• Every person in the hospital has a purpose – no random visitors or individuals wandering the hallways. Prior to or during check-in, all visitors must state their purpose. Are you here to see a patient? See a physician? Pick up meds? Rehab appointment?

• Every person is checked against a watchlist – internal or external. Medical staff and patients can report dangerous individuals to security. These individuals end up on a watchlist under a zero-tolerance policy.

• Every person must check-in with a photo ID card or passport – this policy can be extended to patients and employees too.

• Every person seeing a patient is checked into that specific patient – this makes it easy to review any restrictions or denied visitors to that patient.

• Patients have a restricted list as well – patients can make their own watchlists of individuals they do not want to see, thus protecting the hospital from liability and the patient.

• All visitors are badged and must wear an ID badge – visitors will only have access to the floor and area that they have been approved to have access to.

• Visitors are put on a mustering list if there is an emergency or mass notification – Do you know who is in your hospital? VIM solutions integrate with other physical access and business systems so you can find out.

• Visitors must be checked in and checked out at visitor desks– restrict entry/exit points so that visitors must pass these desk(s) with security. Self-service kiosks with security supervision are also an option.

To learn more about automated VIM solutions for both patient and visitor management in healthcare click here.