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.

As an institution, healthcare has adapted well to managing the complexities and propensities for violence in medical settings, but it is a particularly complex and dangerous occupation for healthcare employees, patients and bystanders.