The statistics are startling. Healthcare professionals are five times more likely to encounter violence than any other occupation. Nearly half of nurses will encounter some form of physical violence in their careers – a profession that’s 80% women. One company that is providing tools to support healthcare workers to address these challenges is Canopy. In an interview, Canopy Co-Founder and CEO Shan Sinha talked about some of the challenges health system staff face and how the company seeks to support healthcare staff, helping health systems de-escalate and reduce workplace violence.
Canopy, a provider of wearable safety technology for healthcare workers and category leader in what is commonly now known as a connected safety platform, teams up with health systems around the U.S., helping hospitals protect their staff amidst the growing challenge of threats in the workplace.
A 2023 survey by the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety Foundation found that disorderly conduct was the most common threat to healthcare workers, followed by assault. So why is the healthcare industry so vulnerable to workplace violence? A paper by the Annals of Medicine and Surgery provides some insight:
“Violence in healthcare settings worsens when there is a crisis, emergency, or disaster, which involves large groups of people who are even more overwhelmed with panic attacks, shock, uncertainties, fears, and worries of the conditions they or their family members are going through. As a result, healthcare workers become the targets to vent their anger or frustrations. The most vulnerable healthcare workers victimized are staff at emergency departments, especially nurses, paramedics, and staff directly involved with in-patient care.”
Sinha emphasized that these altercations are not limited to urban areas but play out in the suburbs, affluent, and rural communities as well.
“Everyone is dealing with challenges that stem from a healthcare system that’s incredibly hard to navigate,” Sinha said. “We definitely saw an escalation of activity, growing patient aggression, and violence coming out of the pandemic. And it just doesn’t seem to be going away.”
He added:
“Healthcare workers every single day encounter situations where patients are getting aggressive. Patient advocates, such as patients’ family members, are getting verbally aggressive more frequently. Situations are becoming confrontational, violent and oftentimes physical, leading to all sorts of other challenges. Healthcare professionals are at risk for their personal safety. More broadly, you’re seeing greater rates of burnout.”
When a nurse or hospital staff member feels that an encounter with a patient or a patient’s family member is becoming dangerous or escalating, they can activate their sensor, a discreet button hidden behind their nametag. Pressing the button instantly alerts the on-site security team with the nurse’s exact location, including the room and floor number, so they know exactly where to respond. The Canopy platform also alerts all nurses and staff within proximity of the situation. The surrounding team will receive an immediate message to their phone or clinical comms device alerting them of who needs help, and their precise location. The dispatched officer, or surrounding hospital staff if volunteered to do so, will arrive on scene to de-escalate the situation, unless it’s already been resolved upon their arrival.
Often just having the presence of someone else in the room starts to change the dynamic to de-escalate the interaction.
Sinha recounted the feedback from one of the hospitals Canopy works with – Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. One of the unanticipated effects of its device was that several people would come to support an individual who pressed their button – oftentimes, the physicians themselves would also come. “When the physician appeared, the patient would immediately calm down because they were trying to talk to the physician in the first place,” Sinha said. The nurses, in turn, felt supported by the physicians.
The physician’s support turned what could have been an escalating incident into a moment that reinforced a team spirit in the hospital and allowed a patient to calm down. One of the things that Canopy does uniquely well, according to Sinha, is collaborate with health systems.
“We collaborate very deeply with some leading health systems to design a product that not only has all the right features and functions, but could easily and effectively be deployed successfully,” Sinha said. “We spent a significant amount of care and attention on all the little logistical details that are required to support staff and roll out a program like this. Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia was absolutely a part of the genesis of a product that was able to be as impactful as it has been.”
Over the past six years, Canopy has seen robust adoption across a large number and wide variety of organizations. Most organizations that Canopy works with are the trailblazing and leading-edge health systems.
“What they’ve acknowledged is that this is a challenge that can be critical to delivering great patient care,” said Sinha. “It ultimately supports the safety of your staff. If you don’t feel safe at work, you’re going to show up anxious, and worried about how you actually deliver that care, and that affects all the different roles that are involved in the delivery of care.”
Sinha noted that the most innovative organizations Canopy has worked with share several characteristics. One is the complete commitment to the safety and well-being of their staff, and the other is a higher staff retention rate.
“What we see are leaders that are looking for ways to demonstrate their appreciation for the work that their staff does and the challenges that they face every day. What they see is a very visible way to demonstrate their commitment to their staff, and Canopy’s results reflect that,” said Sinha.
Photo: Joos Mind, Getty Images