Posts Tagged ‘personal safety training inc.’

Police: Hospital Suspect Killed Self, Mother

Friday, September 17th, 2010

Associated Press

BALTIMORE—A man who became distraught as he was being briefed on his mother’s condition at Johns Hopkins Hospital pulled a gun and shot the doctor Thursday, then killed his mother and himself in her room at the world-famous medical center, police said.

Baltimore police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said the doctor had been talking to the 50-year-old man just after 11 a.m. when he “became emotionally distraught and reacted ..and was overwhelmed by the news of his mother’s condition.” The man was initially identified as Warren Davis, but police later said that was an alias. His real name was Paul Warren Pardus of Arlington, Va. Mr. Bealefeld said he did not know what the woman was being treated for at the world-class facility, known for its cancer research and treatment. Mr. Pardus then pulled a semiautomatic handgun from his waistband shot the doctor once in the abdomen, the commissioner said.

The doctor collapsed outside room 873 of the Nelson building, where Mr. Pardus’s mother, Jean Davis, was being treated. Mr. Pardus then holed up inside his mother’s room for more than two hours during a standoff with authorities. When officers made their way to the eighth-floor room, they found Mr. Pardus dead on the floor and his mother dead in her hospital bed.

Two Hopkins employees said the physician who was wounded is Dr. David B. Cohen, an assistant professor and orthopedic surgeon. The employees asked to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to discuss the matter. Police said the doctor underwent surgery and was expected to survive. Michelle Burrell, who works in a coffee shop in the hospital lobby, said she was told by employees who were on the floor where the doctor was shot that the gunman was angry with the doctor’s treatment of his mother.

“It’s crazy,” she said. Hannah Murtaugh, 25, a first-year nursing student at the facility’s nursing school, said her physiology class was put on lockdown. She said a classmate received a security alert text message from the school saying a gunman was on the Nelson building’s eighth floor. Her professor interrupted the lecture to let students know about the situation. “They just kept telling us to stay away from the windows. We think there was a sniper located below our classroom,” Ms. Murtaugh said. “I was scared — wondering if any of my friends or other students who had clinicals that day were on that floor, hoping the situation would be contained, trying to see what was going on while staying away from the windows.” She said security personnel helped keep everyone calm, making sure doors were locked and reviewing what could be done if the gunman was on the loose.

A small area of the hospital had been locked down before the gunman died, as about a dozen officers wearing vests and helmets and carrying assault weapons prepared to go into the hospital at midday. The Nelson building is the main hospital tower. According to the Hopkins website, the eighth floor is home to orthopedic, spine, trauma and thoracic services. The rest of the massive hospital, research and medical education complex remained open, including the emergency department.

With more than 30,000 employees, Johns Hopkins Medicine is among Maryland’s largest private employers and the largest in Baltimore. The hospital has more than 1,000 beds and more than 1,700 full-time doctors.

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Nurses fear even more ER assaults as programs cut

Sunday, August 15th, 2010

By JULIE CARR SMYTH (Associated Press) – AUGUST 2010

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Emergency room nurse Erin Riley suffered bruises, scratches and a chipped tooth last year from trying to pull the clamped jaws of a psychotic patient off the hand of a doctor at a suburban Cleveland hospital.

A second assault just months later was even more upsetting: She had just finished cutting the shirt off a drunken patient and was helping him into his hospital gown when he groped her.

“The patients always come first — and I don’t think anybody has a question about that — but I don’t think it has to be an either-or situation,” said Riley, a registered nurse for five years.

Violence against nurses and other medical professionals appears to be increasing around the country as the number of drug addicts, alcoholics and psychiatric patients showing up at emergency rooms climbs.

Nurses have responded, in part, by seeking tougher criminal penalties for assaults against health care workers.

“It’s come to the point where nurses are saying, `Enough is enough. The slapping, screaming and groping are not part of the job,’” said Joseph Bellino, president of the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety, which represents professionals who manage security at hospitals.

Visits to ERs for drug- and alcohol-related incidents climbed from about 1.6 million in 2005 to nearly 2 million in 2008, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. From 2006 to 2008, the number of those visits resulting in violence jumped from 16,277 to 21,406, the agency said.

Nurses and experts in mental health and addiction say the problem has only been getting worse since then because of the downturn in the economy, as cash-strapped states close state hospitals, cut mental health jobs, eliminate addiction programs and curtail other services.

After her second attack in a year, Riley began pushing her hospital to put uniformed police on duty.

The American College of Emergency Physicians has recommended other safety measures, including 24-hour security guards, coded ID badges, bulletproof glass and “panic buttons” for medical staff to push. Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital is among hospitals that have had success with metal detectors, confiscating 33 handguns, 1,324 knives, and 97 Mace sprays in the first six months of the program.

But there are practical and philosophical obstacles to locking down an ER. Bellino and others say safety begins with training health care workers to recognize signs of impending violence and defuse volatile situations with their tone of voice, their body language, even the time-outs parents use with children.

He said nurses, doctors, administrators and security guards should have a plan for working together when violence erupts. “In my opinion, every place we’ve put teamwork in, we’ve been able to de-escalate the violence and keep the staff safer,” he said.

Also, he and others said it is important to combat the notion among police, prosecutors, courts — and, at times, nurses themselves, who are often reluctant to press charges — that violence is just part of the job.

“There’s a real acceptance of violence. We’re still dealing with that really intensely,” said Donna Graves, a University of Cincinnati professor who is helping the federal government study solutions.

Robert Glover, executive director of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, said economic hard times are the worst time for cuts to mental health programs because anxieties about job loss and lack of insurance increase drug and alcohol use and family fights.

“Most of them, if it’s a crisis, will end up in emergency rooms,” he said.

Vermont nurse David DeRosia, who has been attacked at work, said patients want McDonald’s-like fast service even when they visit busy emergency rooms. When they don’t get it, some lash out.

“They want to be able to pop in and get what they need immediately, when the emergency department has to see the sickest patients first,” he said. “There are many people who have unrealistic expectations they can get whatever they want immediately, and it isn’t a reality.”

What has heightened fears among nurses and other health professionals is that attacks have become more violent, Graves said. “What’s bringing attention to it now is the type of violence: the increase in guns, in weapons coming in, in drugs, the many psychiatric patients, the alcohol, the people with dementia,” she said.

Twenty-six states apply tougher penalties for assaults against on-the-job health care workers. A renewed push to stiffen punishment began the Emergency Nurses Association reported last year that more than half of 3,465 emergency nurses who participated in an anonymous, online survey had been assaulted at work.

“It came as news to me that they are one of the most assaulted professions out there,” said state Rep. Denise Driehaus, who is pushing tougher nurse-assault penalties in Ohio.

Yet bills making an assault on a nurse a felony instead of a misdemeanor failed in North Carolina and Vermont during sessions that just ended, and Virginia shunted its proposal to a state crime commission.

Rita Anderson, a former emergency nurse who pioneered efforts in New York in 1996 to make it a felony to assault a nurse, said resistance is often strong — among both nurses and law enforcement officials.

In 1999, after her jaw was dislocated by a 250-pound teenager, Anderson pursued charges under the state law she had worked hard to pass. She said police were surprised a nurse would press charges against a patient, and prosecutors were skeptical of the case.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re drunk or you’re on drugs or you’re in pain,” she said. “That doesn’t give you the right to hit another person.”

Seattle ER nurse Jeaux Rinehart had learned to get outside fast to avoid kicks, spit, scratches and punches on the job at Virginia Mason Hospital. Then one day in 2007 Rinehart didn’t move quickly enough and a junkie who had entered the ER in search of a fix smashed him in the face with a billy club. Bones broken, Rinehart sucked meals from a straw for weeks.

“A thing like that sticks in your mind to the point where it’s always there, it’s always present,” Rinehart said. “I’m on heightened alert a hundred percent of the time.”

Rinehart was attacked again in July. An intoxicated patient punched and spit on him, then threatened to come back with a gun and kill him. He is pursuing felony charges.

___

Emergency Nurses Association: http://www.ena.org

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When Violence Strikes the Workplace

Friday, August 13th, 2010

“My executive assistant is opening the mail with a butcher knife.”

Those were the worrisome words that Evan Fray-Witzer, an employment attorney, heard when he took a call from a nervous small-business client several years ago. The story got worse: The client’s assistant, on staff for two decades, had apparently taped a photo to her computer of a man who’d recently murdered seven co-workers.

“When they asked her why, her response was, ‘He’s my hero,’ ” says Mr. Fray-Witzer, a partner with Ciampa Fray-Witzer in Boston, who advised his client to take immediate action. “It’s important not to write these concerns off because the potential results can be catastrophic.”

Indeed, just last week, a truck driver facing possible dismissal from family-owned Hartford Distributors, a beer and wine distributor in Manchester, Conn., fatally shot eight co-workers before apparently killing himself, authorities say.

[sbviolence] Getty Images
An employee at Hartford Distributors, a beer and wine distributor in Manchester, Conn., fatally shot eight co-workers in August.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an average of 497 workplace homicides occurred annually between 2003 and 2008, most (86%) within the private sector. Still, workplace homicides are rare, accounting for just 8% of total fatal work injuries in 2008, the federal agency reports.

Crisis experts say small businesses tend to be more susceptible than large organizations to such tragic events because they typically don’t employ security personnel or invest in disaster-response training. And it’s often tougher for small companies to resume normal operations.

“Within a year, most of the employees will leave [because] they’re so traumatized and so scared, they’re just afraid to go back to work at that particular facility,” says Bo Mitchell, president of 911 Consulting LLC in Wilton, Conn., which helps companies with disaster recovery. “Replacing them is a terrible expense.”

Business owners could also face legal damages if they’re sued for negligence by victims’ families, says Andria Lure Ryan, a partner in Atlanta with Fisher & Phillips LLP, an employment law firm. She advises clients to enforce a zero-tolerance policy for violence and threats, terminating or disciplining any employee who crosses the line. A strict approach sets the tone for a safe workplace, she says.

Catalysts that trigger incidents of workplace violence vary greatly and employees are not always involved. But when a staff member is to blame, the person’s behavior is often in reaction to disciplinary action or a termination.

Greg Szymanski, human-resources director at Geonerco Management Inc., a real-estate developer in Seattle, says workers have thrown office supplies at him after being dismissed. Others have attempted to take company property or refused to leave the building.

Laying off workers requires balancing firmness with compassion, Mr. Szymanski says. “You have an obligation to conduct yourself in a certain manner so that you’re not a jerk,” he says. “But you’re also responsible to employees who are still there and their safety.”

Some business owners say occasionally it’s necessary to terminate an employee whose behavior in the workplace signals that he or she could potentially erupt in violence.

Richard W. Hayman, the former owner of a small retail business, says he did this when staffers complained that a colleague’s bizarre manner made them uncomfortable. “He was giving people the creeps,” recalls Mr. Hayman, now president of Just Moulding Franchising LLC, a trim-carpentry company in Gaithersburg, Md. “He was bringing his personal problems into the workplace.”

To avoid problems, Mr. Hayman says he fired the man by telling him he’d outgrown his position and that it was time to move on. He also handed the person a $1,000 severance check to lessen the blow. As a result, the sacked employee “felt respected and appreciated even though he was leaving,” says Mr. Hayman.

Tips for Safeguarding the Workplace

  • Establish and strictly enforce a zero-tolerance policy for violent behavior or threats, including seemingly empty threats.
  • Create an emergency-action plan, as is required by federal law for employers of all sizes. An employer with 10 or fewer employees may communicate the plan orally to employees, while larger firms must put it in writing.
  • Keep a written record of any disciplinary action and have the employee sign it.
  • Devise a termination strategy that doesn’t discriminate; follow the same protocol when firing both executives and laborers.
  • Conduct dismissals in a private setting and enlist a senior company leader to serve as a witness.
  • Upon terminating an employee, immediately disable his or her access to the company’s computer systems and confiscate keys.
  • If the demeanor or behavior of a person being dismissed is questionable, consider calling law enforcement for support.

—Wall Street Journal reporting

Taking the opposite approach during a firing, such as by showing contempt, can fuel a violent outburst, warns Joseph Grenny, co-author of “Crucial Conversations.” “You need to increase the likelihood they will walk out feeling they were dealt with somewhat justly and somewhat compassionately,” he says.

Mike Mothner, founder of Wpromote Inc., a small Web-marketing firm in Los Angeles, says he asks himself two questions before firing someone whose behavior seems to indicate a potential security threat: “If this person came to me and said, ‘I’m going to leave,’ would I be secretly relieved or upset?” The other: “If I went back in time, would I hire this person again?”

“If you can’t positively answer yes to both,” says Mr. Mothner, “then that’s really telling.”

Mr. Fray-Witzer, the attorney whose advice was sought by the small-business client with the knife-bearing assistant, says sometimes a firing can be avoided. In this particular case, the client firm gave the problem employee the option to undergo mental-health counseling or be dismissed. The employee accepted the counseling and has behaved appropriately ever since, he says.

“There was little question that the company could have terminated her employment if they chose to,” he says. “It really was sort of a unique solution.”

Article by: Sarah E. Needleman at the Wall Street Journal

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Difficult task to lower risk of workplace violence

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

By BEN DOBBIN (Associated Press) 

Criminologists call it murder by proxy — rampages by employees who go after their boss, supervisors and even co-workers they link to the source of their outrage. The message is: Look who’s doing the firing now.

These eruptions of workplace violence often occur in similarly brutal ways. But experts say they rarely come with a warning, making them hard to stop.

Employers can reduce the risk of on-the-job attacks, especially in cases where employees are about to get axed; if there have been signs of distress or aggression, they can move the conversation away from the main work space or have security present. Patdown searches and the use of metal detectors are also options for some companies but have the drawback of raising tension.

In the latest outburst of workplace violence, Omar Thornton, a driver for a beer distributor, fatally shot eight fellow workers and wounded two others Tuesday at the company warehouse in Manchester, Conn., then killed himself.

Thornton calmly agreed to quit after being confronted with surveillance video showing him stealing beer. Shortly afterward, he started shooting. Nothing in his work history or behavior suggested he would be violent, the company said. Though Thornton, who is black, alleged in a phone call to 911 that he had been racially harassed, his employers and union disputed the claim and said he had never filed a complaint.

“Ten seconds before he started shooting, if you had asked me, does he look like he’s going to react in any way? I would have said ‘no, he seems calm,’” Steve Hollander, a company vice president grazed by the gunman’s bullets, told The Associated Press the day of the attack.

Meetings to fire employees should be carefully planned, taking into account the location, how many people are going to be present and what should be done if there is any potential for violence, said Jim Francis, a senior security consultant at T&M Protection Resources, a security firm in New York.

Among the questions to ask, he said: Should an off-duty police officer be brought in for security?

If an employee has a violent past, he said, the choices are more clear-cut and the planning easier.

“You certainly then ought to expect that there is potential for additional violence,” he said.

Heavy security measures can backfire.

“Searching an employee and bringing in metal detectors on a one-off basis is probably not something you’re going to do because … you may be inflaming the scenario by playing such a strong card,” he said.

Without warning signs — and even with security measures in place — experts say there is little that can be done to stop a determined gunman.

“The only way to guarantee you never become a victim of a workplace shooting is to be self-employed,” said James Alan Fox, professor of criminology at Northeastern University in Boston.

Investigators say Thornton came to work at Hartford Distributors with two 9 mm handguns stashed in his lunch box, which he placed in the kitchen next to the office where he learned he was being let go. After quietly agreeing to resign, the 34-year-old retrieved the guns, killed two men who had attended his disciplinary hearing, then roamed through the plant and the parking lot targeting other workers.

Francis said companies of all sizes need to consider a violence protection plan.

In all cases where there’s potential for violence, the interview should be conducted away from the main workplace, employees should be escorted to and from the room and supervisors should evaluate whether “this situation is serious enough that we want security visibly present,” Francis said.

Trained supervisors will be aware of the need to avoid angering the employee unnecessarily.

“You always want to be conveying empathy, not sympathy,” he said. “It’s not agreeing with them but it’s at least recognizing they’re in a tense circumstance. Your actions and words need to be crafted such that they don’t further inflame the situation.”

Companies should also provide training to help staff understand danger signs in those around them, said Ross Arrowsmith, a senior security adviser with Workers Compensation Board in Alberta, Canada.

An average of 63 people are killed each year by a co-worker or former co-worker in U.S. workplaces, federal statistics show.

In 2003, recently fired Salvador Tapia returned to an auto parts warehouse in Chicago and killed six former co-workers before being shot dead by police. In 1986, Pat Sherrill, a postal worker who authorities say was about to be fired, killed 14 people at a post office in Edmond, Okla., then fatally wounded himself.

After workplace violence, an employer can be held liable for failing to adequately screen job applicants, recognize and take action against problem employees, or provide adequate security.

In 1999, a jury found Union Butterfield and Dormer Tools of Asheville, N.C., negligent for failing to protect two men killed by a worker who went on a shooting rampage after he was fired. The jury awarded $7.9 million to the families of the slain employees.

“The best thing is not just to say, ‘There’s the door, don’t let it hit you on the way out,’” said Northeastern’s Fox. “It’s important to listen, try to understand, try not to put them into a position where they’ve lost all respect.”

 

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