Violence Prevention Letter 062111

June 21, 2011

Dear Ms. Rejrat,

We are asking you to appoint management leadership in the form of a Violence Prevention Project Manager to the existing Violence Prevention Committee. Since James Hogle, the Executive Director of Facilities has left UMDNJ the Committee is left with a single co-chair, Dr. Cheryl Kennedy, who acts in an advisory capacity. The Committee needs management leadership from an individual with comprehensive knowledge of the facility and full authority to implement the law, policy and programs to be developed by the committee.

Our request is timely not only because a vacuum has been created with the departure of Mr. Hogle, but also because the New Jersey Department of Health has announced that the adoption of regulations to achieve compliance with NJ Act 1761 “Violence Prevention in Health Care Facilities” will take place July, 2011.

The Violence Prevention Committee is an important committee because it works to bring the hospital into compliance with NJ Act 1761, and it is needed to oversee and ensure a significant reduction in the escalating number of workplace violence incidents. While there has been a national reduction in workplace violence, there has been a dramatic increase at University Hospital.

At University Hospital, according to the OSHA 300 log, the number of patient caused injuries reported in 2010 was 24, resulting in employees losing 958 days of work with an additional 20 reported cases that did not result in the loss of work days. The Workers Compensation information recorded 73 similar cases in 2010 with 24 cases resulting in 524 days away from work with claims costing an average of $170,545. The comparative data from 2008 indicates that in University Hospital according to the OSHA 300 log, the number of patient caused injuries reported was 20, resulting in employees missing 127 days of work. The Workers Compensation information recorded 42 similar cases in 2008 with 9 cases resulting in 263 days away from work.

This is an increase between 2008 and 2010 on the OSHA 300 log of 20% in patient caused injuries and 750% in days lost from work. It was an increase on the Workers Compensation side of 174% of cases with an increase of 200% in employees missing days of work. As you can see, this is an alarming increase that is costing University Hospital considerable financial resources, including the raw costs of Workers Compensation reimbursement, employee replacement and training costs.

A fully authorized Violence Prevention Project Manager, with the assistance of the Violence Prevention Committee, is critical to reduce the University Hospital’s patient caused injuries and workers compensation costs.

University Hospital very effectively developed and implemented a Safe Patient Handling policy and program to bring the facility into legal compliance and reduce the number of patient handling incidents. We hope that University Hospital will take the NJ Violence Prevention Act equally seriously by developing and implementing a policy and program throughout the facility to reduce the escalating workplace incidents that may lead to fatalities and increased litigations.

We thank you for your consideration and look forward to working with you, the appointed Violence Prevention Project Manager and the Violence Prevention Committee.

Sincerely,

Elmer Daniels, President, Local 5089
Albert Abdemur, Chair, Violence Prevention Committee, Local 5089

cc:
Diana Crowder
Thomas Daly
Brian Dolan
Cheryl Kennedy
Janice Lade
Chris Michael
Sarah Walters
Robin Wittenstein