MUHC to beef up internal security protocols

Staff to be trained in ‘crisis de-escalation’ after ER nurse nearly strangled recently

Less than a month after an emergency-room nurse was nearly strangled at the Montreal General Hospital, the McGill University Health Centre has concluded that it must train staff in “crisis de-escalation and prevention” and will strengthen its internal security protocols, the Montreal Gazette has learned.

In addition, the MUHC announced that “new collaborative protocols are being finalized” with the Montreal police department on how to deal with unstable patients. The MUHC has also created the position of “Commissioner for the Development of a Respectful and Non-Violent Workplace” and has launched a task force aimed at reducing violence in the emergency department.

“The safety and security of our health-care professionals, patients, volunteers and visitors are of the utmost importance to the MUHC,” Martine Alfonso, interim chief executive officer of the hospital network, said in a statement released Friday night.

The new measures follow nearly three weeks of intensive debriefings with staff and mark a shift in the MUHC’s public position on the attack on the nurse.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, senior MUHC officials repeatedly defended as adequate the security response at the Montreal General in the early morning hours of Sept. 2.

“The appropriate security protocol was launched and the necessary personnel intervened to neutralize the psychotic patient,” Richard Fahey, the MUHC’s director of public affairs, said at the time.

But hospital staff who witnessed the attack on the nurse — whom a criminal complaint alleges was mutilated and disfigured — told the Gazette that there was no security guard in the psychiatric ER that night.

In addition to the nurse, a female patient attendant who came to her rescue was allegedly assaulted.

Since the incident, the MUHC — which oversees the Montreal General — has assigned a permanent security guard in the psychiatric ER. The Montreal General is a Level 1 trauma centre, treating the victims of gang-related violence as well as those injured in life-threatening accidents.

The hospital’s proximity to downtown bars means that ER staff often deal with heavily intoxicated patients, and since 2015, it has assumed the responsibility of treating emergency psychiatric patients.

A Montreal police spokesperson confirmed that there have been talks with the MUHC in the past few weeks. Ian Popple, a spokesperson for the MUHC, said the collaborative protocols with police involve the “turnover” of patients to ER staff, but was unable to elaborate further.

Meanwhile, the 35-year-old nurse who was attacked continues to recover at home. The ER staff have sent her cards, but she hasn’t yet spoken to colleagues.

The safety and security of our health-care professionals, patients, volunteers and visitors are of the utmost importance.