Violence in the health care workplace

[One of the authors responds:]

I thank Gary Liss for his comments regarding our recent article on violence. As he notes, and as confirmed by more recent workers' compensation statistics, violence remains a significant issue in the health care setting. However, failure to acknowledge its impact on staff may be as detrimental as the violence itself. To mobilize sufficient resources to prevent violence, and to help its victims, we must first recognize the extent of this major health care problem. The fact that this issue has not gone away in the 5 years since the Yassi article that Liss cites was published suggests that we have not taken this first step.

In a follow-up study now underway, we are prospectively examining the impact of violence on various professions in the emergency department and ways to reduce this violence. We hope that this research encourages further funding to study the issue and to promote more innovative approaches to a pervasive and ever-expanding problem.