Creating Smarter and Safer Hospitals: A Key Strategy to Address Worker Fatigue and Healthcare Worker Shortages

Healthcare Workers Deal with Frequent Physical & Mental Threats

Today, hospitals and healthcare clinics are recognized as some of the most dangerous workplaces globally.

According to recent federal data from the U.S., the healthcare sector has, since 2019, experienced an average of 14.2 cases of workplace violence reported annually for every 10,000 full-time workers. In contrast, the overall private industry reported only 2.9 cases per 10,000 workers.

This concerning trend is also observable in Europe, Latin America, and various countries in the Asia-Pacific region, where there has been a marked increase in both physical and verbal assaults, particularly affecting nurses.

The rising levels of workplace violence is a major issue turning people off from pursuing healthcare-related careers. And, that’s a problem for many reasons.

By 2030, the World Health Organization (WHO) projects that the current global healthcare worker shortage will grow by more than 30%, and exceed at least 10 million. The problem exists across every continent.

A recent article by Pooja Kumar, a global leader of the McKinsey Health Institute, talks about how even large economies are seeing double digit shortages, and certain regions are experiencing outsized disparities.

To mitigate workplace violence and ensure the safety of employees, we are seeing more hospitals and healthcare centers enhancing their investments in AI video surveillance solutions.

Many Advantages of Real-Time Awareness

With an integrated AI-powered video surveillance system, security and operations leaders can effectively monitor everything in and around the facility.

Whether onsite or working from a centralized offsite location, they can easily monitor outdoor perimeters, parking garages, entrances/exits, visitor reception zones, patient floors, supply rooms, and more.

Proactive video monitoring supported by AI and machine learning enables the real-time detection of potential threats, enabling security pros to take the right immediate actions. Typical suspicious activities include unauthorized access attempts, loitering, and aggressive behavior.

If an incident does occur, accurately identifying a person of interest can be achieved within minutes, eliminating the need to sift through numerous camera feeds.

Additionally, AI data analytics can effectively differentiate real threats from common causes of false alarms, such as trees, loose cables, small animals, and debris.

Beyond security, the right AI video surveillance solutions provides many other operational benefits.

Reduce Risks & Legal Actions helps hospitals and healthcare centers to reduce risks, potential liabilities and lawsuits. Real-time, clear visual data provides information for demonstrating compliance with key regulations and helps defend employee actions if disputes arise with patients and/or their family members.

Combat Employee Fatigue Enables nurses and doctors to more easily complete their patient care-related tasks with the facilitation of remote patient monitoring.

Better Management of Visitor Entries Hospitals are high-traffic facilities with strategic vendors, healthcare staff (doctors, nurses), patients, and visitors seeking entrances all day and night. Smart video surveillance can support better visitor management procedures and help hospitals reduce their reliance on live patrols, identify potential threats at their earliest warning signs, and allow security personnel to better focus on the most critical priorities.

Video surveillance offers a robust solution for safeguarding valuable assets and sensitive areas when fewer staff members are on site.

For example, visible high-resolution cameras placed strategically in pharmacies, equipment rooms, and records rooms serve as valuable threat deterrence for medications, supplies, and valuable equipment.