David Michaels teams up with OSHA to create a multifaceted whistleblower program -- how can stamping out workers' fears of discrimination or retaliation improve your investigations?

Healthcare institutions have managed workplace violence with measurable success, despite the challenges faced in hospitals, emergency rooms, mental health, nursing homes, long-term care and community healthcare facilities. The magnitude of the problem is astounding – its devastating impact looms mightily in the hearts and minds of boards of directors, C-suites and security directors as both a real institutional threat and a contentious business reality facing healthcare today.

 Government regulators are beginning a three-year program focusing on protecting workers in the nursing and residential care fields from serious safety and health hazards, according to an OSHA news brief.  

A recent OSHA inspection of a Maine psychiatric hospital found more than 90 instances from 2008 through 2010 in which workers were assaulted on the job by patients. The hospital was cited for not providing its workers with adequate safeguards against workplace violence and a fine of more than $6,000 was proposed. OSHA has also recently cited facilities in New York and Massachusetts where employees have been killed as a result of assaults.

Growth. Most organizations strive for it, but when it happens too quickly, unforeseen issues can arise that translate into a higher level of security related risk than the organization might be comfortable with. While most organizations constantly strive for growth and expansion, they need to recognize that with growth come growing pains and a litany of security related issues that may or may not have been factored into the plans of the organization as it continues to deal with day to day business as well as any new problems that a new acquisition might bring.