Workplace Violence Best Practices for the Worst Case

Locations that were once considered safe havens—such as schools, places of worship, and health care facilities—are not immune to acts of violence. This session will explore the unique risks in health care facilities, emergency rooms, mental health services, and other treatment facilities and address preparedness through operations and design. The session will cover ways that the external and internal environment can be used to mitigate risk, tools available to help, and standards and guidelines aimed at preventing violence. In this 60-minute webinar, speakers will describe the elements of a workplace violence prevention and response plans, develop an action plan for assessing active shooter risk, identify standards and guidelines aimed at reducing workplace violence and integration of preventative and response measures into the built environment.

Speakers Include:

• Connie Packard, CHPA, is the IAHSS Foundation president and the executive director of Support Services overseeing Public Safety, Control Center, Parking services for Boston University Medical Center as well as Emergency Management for Boston Medical Center. She currently serves as an Incident Commander for Boston Medical Center for Emergency and crisis response. For the past 28 years she has overseen health care security for the medical campus which includes the BU School of Medicine, Dental Medicine, School of Public Health, Graduate studies, Research facilities and the 496-bed hospital which is the primary teaching affiliate for Boston University. She has more than 30 years’ experience in security and public safety work in both the public and private sectors.
• Thomas A. Smith, CHPA, CPP, is the chair of the IAHSS Council on Guidelines and has worked in the health care field since 1981. During this time, he held a number of leadership positions in a variety of healthcare facilities including a community hospital, an inner city medical center, and a large academic medical center. He also has worked as an associate consultant for Healthcare Security Consultants, Inc., and other organizations since 1990. He is now the owner of Healthcare Security Consultants, Inc., providing consulting expertise focusing on security program reviews, health care security design, recruitment and development of security leadership positions, and providing expert witness services.
• Kevin Tuohey, CHPA, is the IAHSS Board president-elect and the executive director for Research Compliance at Boston University & Boston Medical Center, overseeing services focused on the management of a safe and legally compliant environment. He is the president-elect of IAHSS, chaired the IAHSS Guidelines Council and participated in the development of the IAHSS Security Design Guidelines. He has 36 years of experience in health care and higher education emergency management, facilities, real estate, safety and security; and has been involved in the development, planning, threat and risk assessment, design, construction and operations of facilities with security requirements ranging from those with open access to those with significant protective design.

For more information on ASHE, a personal membership group of the AHA, visit ashe.org.

Presentation slides (PDF)

Video Recording