Sask. Health Authority hires expert to perform review of violent incidents

An increase of violent incidents at health-care facilities in the province has prompted the Saskatchewan Health Authority to hire an external consultant to perform a security review.

“We deal with lots of mental health and addictions issues,” said Andrew Will, vice-president of infrastructure, information and support for the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA). “Definitely we’re seeing more events where staff and/or patient safety is jeopardized.”

Emergency departments are one of the highest-risk services, he said.

“Other high-risk areas include mental health and addiction services, but they can occur anywhere,” Will said. “Even in our long-term care facilities sometimes we have challenges around violence.”

The review will focus predominantly on hospitals, but security issues at other health-care facilities will also be under the lens.

“We’ve heard concerns from staff and the public and the unions as a partner as well — they ’re very concerned about staff safety also,” Will said. “We have had some incidents where staff have been seriously injured due to violent situations. We never want to see that happen.”

He noted safety concerns at health-care facilities are not a new challenge.

“All of the former health regions were definitely struggling with the delivery of security services and seeing anecdotal increases in the number of violent events in facilities,” Will said.

The review will look at improving safety in the workplace by implementing best practices in security services.

A number of thefts at Saskatchewan hospitals have made headlines in the past couple of years. Some of those incidents involved patients having their belongings stolen from their bedside.

Property theft will be part of the review, but the primary focus will be protecting staff and patients, Will said.

The review will include looking at the safety of staff and visitors as they go back and forth from parking lots to facilities.

“It’s not just security staff, but also video surveillance and other tools that we can deploy to provide the safest service possible,” Will said.

Heading up the review is Tony Weeks, founder of Ontario-based BigLeap Consultation and Advisory Services.

“Tony has worked in the security field since 1988,” Will said. “He started as a front line security officer in Toronto.”

Between 2001 and 2009, Weeks was involved in building an integrated security service for the Kingston group of hospitals and he headed the largest health-care security team in the country during his time with Alberta Health Services.

“He’s really the only person in the country that’s led a transformation and improvement of protective services at a provincewide level,” Will said.

There are two components to the review: understanding the current safety risks across the province, and recommendations for improvement.

“Some facilities and some communities certainly do have higher risks than others,” Will said. “I think it’s exciting, with us as a new provincial health authority, we’ve got a chance here to really understand provincewide what is the risk that’s out there and then allocate resources and allocate best practices to efficiently improve our security service.”

Weeks will look at community crime information and data on violent incidents in facilities across the province as part of the review.

Additionally, he’ll be touring Saskatchewan to talk to healthcare workers.

“He’ll be hosting a number of focus groups that include front line staff, physicians, patients and some of our security staff,” Will said. ‘He’ll hear their perception of the way the service is currently delivered and explore opportunities of where we can improve that service for protecting staff and patients.”

The SHA has budgeted about $48,000 for the review to be done.

“That includes all of the travel and all of the engagement sessions, the analytics and drafting the report,” Will said.

He anticipates the review will be completed by summer.

“I think it will give us a really good starting point in making improvements,” Will said.

It’s not just security staff, but also video surveillance and other tools that we can deploy to provide the safest service possible.