Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center is updating safety procedures after finishing a workplace safety review.
The review was conducted by the Workplace Safety Steering Committee, made up of medical center leaders, nurses and staff members.
The hospital system is adding extra security measures to prevent violence. These measures will include adding weapon detection systems to hospital entrances beginning in August.
The weapon detection systems will be placed at entrances around the facility starting with Harding Hospital, East Hospital and the Brain and Spine Center. Emergency departments already have weapon detection systems in place.
In 2024, more than 9,500 weapons were stopped from entering emergency departments at University Hospital and East Hospital. That includes more than 6,600 knives or blades, 72 firearms, 231 stun guns, 1,888 pepper spray canisters and more than 780 miscellaneous weapons such as brass knuckles, chains, utility tools and blunt instruments.
The Wexner Medical Center reported 402 incidents in 2024 where patients or visitors became violent with more than 41% of incidents involving nurses.
Elizabeth Seely is the chief administrative officer in the hospital division and co-chair of the Workplace Safety Steering Committee. In a press release issued Friday, she stated that “while these numbers are troubling, we also see progress, suggesting our use of best-practice workplace safety measures such as early intervention, de-escalation strategies and violence prevention efforts are helping.”
“Between 2021 and 2024, calls for security assistance with patient behavior issues dropped 22% and incidents requiring formal reports dropped 30%, when adjusting for differences in total patient volume,” Seely said.
New safety procedures also include emergency department space re-designs and a new visitor management system with ID and photo badges.
