780 Violent Deaths in the Workplace

Break down like so...

I've been working through the preliminary BLS 2011 CFOI for discussion with my peers and in preparation for a presentation at work this week.

This being the USA, most workplace homicides are committed by criminals with firearms.  Still, there are other horrible events described in the data:

• Shooting - 358
• Stabbing, cutting, slashing, piercing - 42
• Hitting, kicking, beating, shoving - 26
• Strangulation by other person - 4
• Multiple violent acts by other person - 10

As always, suicide remains an under-appreciated category.  It comprises a third of all violent death in the workplace but attracts less attention and passion that the "workplace violence" perpetrated by Type II, III, and IV offenders combined (which happens at about half the rate as self-destruction).  We can take comfort that there were fewer on-the-job suicides in 2011 (242) than in 2010 (270), but how many of these tragedies were preventable?

• Shooting - 108
• Hanging, strangulation, asphyxiation - 85
• Jumping from building or other structure - 18
• Cutting, stabbing - 7
• Drug overdose - 6
• Inhalation of substance - 9

My profession's interest is usually in deliberate action by malefactors, but some violent workplace deaths are accidental or the result of less willful acts.  Injury by person, unintentional or intention unknown, is another new and sad category.  The idea that 17 employees killed their coworkers or themselves through negligent discharge of their firearms is a very serious training issue.  The numbers are incomplete, but within the total of 43 such deaths we know this much so far:

• Shooting by other person - 10
• Injured by physical contact with person while restraining, subduing - 3
• Self-inflicted shooting - 7
• Drug overdose - 14

Of the 37 employees who died in animal and insect related incidents (usually considered a safety issue) we have the following details:

• Bites - 1
• Stings and venomous bites - 12
• Trampled by or stepped on by animal - 8
• Kicked by animal - 4
• Gored or rammed by animal - 5   

Again, these are preliminary numbers; the final totals always increase.  While the numbers continue to decline, mostly due to reductions in Type I criminal violence, there is still plenty of work for us to do.

Enough Showing Off

Now it's time to get some work done...

Just a few short hours from now on Sunday 7 October 2012 a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo capsule will lift off on the first scheduled commercial resupply mission to the ISS.  A detailed press pack for CRS-1 is available, but the details are relatively straightforward, as they should be.  Commercial space flight ought to be safe, reliable, and mundane.  

It's still pretty cool though...

Go, Dragon! 

UPDATE: The Dragon CRS-1 capsule is on orbit after an uneventful launch...just like it's supposed to be.   Okay, it was pretty uneventful but one of its nine engines conked out during the ascent so it was carried into orbit by its eight remaining engines on a slightly different flight path calculated literally on the fly.

REUPDATE: The CRS-1 Dragon capsule arrived at the ISS and was captured by its robotic arm at 5:56 am Central time Wednesday 10 October 2012.  Easy peasy...

And Splashdown: CRS-1 Dragon landed in the Pacific without incident Sunday morning 28 October 2012.

An Old Friend Has Had Some Work Done

The Uptown is back; blocked, buffed, and beautiful…

When Cassie and I went to see The Perks of Being a Wallflower last week we were excited to visit the recently remodeled Landmark Uptown.  When it comes to old school movie theaters the Uptown is an urban classic.  As with many classic venues, while it was long on character, it was also short on comfort.

Back in its art house days I spent many an evening huddled in the dark watching obscure movies from its cramped and creaky seats.  Even men got to experience the discomfort of standing in line waiting to use the tiny, out of the way, restrooms.  Yes, the Uptown was a classic, but like a Greek ruin it was worn out, ragged, and scruffy looking.  And that was in the 1980s…

The decades that followed were not kind to the Uptown.  In the 21^st century we went there with our family and friends only when it was the sole Twin Cities theater where a movie in limited release could be seen.  The seats had degraded from cramped and creaky to damaged, if not dangerous.

Gratefully, Swervo Development Corporation, the new owner of the Uptown, decided to give it a long deferred facelift.  The six-month, $2million project was completed in September.  I’m pleased to report that MacDonald& Mack Architects preserved and refreshed the art deco styling of the 1939 structure while lavishly enhancing the creature comforts.  The remodeled Uptown features:

• An even larger screen  
• 4K digital projection
• Seriously posh leather seats
• Reserved seating
• Sofas for two in the balcony
• A second floor lounge featuring adult beverages
• The latest in gourmet concessions

All these luxurious appointments come at a price. Landmark has increased the ticket price from $9.00 to $10.00.  That's the same fee charged by many soulless multi-megaplex theaters, none of which provide a movie-going experience anything like that offered at the new Uptown.

Photo credit:  MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson

I Remember It Being That Bad

But was it ever that good?

Daughter Cassandra picked the movie this week and she knocked it out of the park!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower joins the ranks of young adult coming of age stories that reminds us how joyous - and how horrible - it was to be a teenager.  It compares quite favorably with (listed alphabetically so as not show any favoritism):

• Catcher in the Rye
• Charlie Bartlett
• It’s Kind of a Funny Story
• Less than Zero
• That Was Then, This is Now
• The Breakfast Club
• The Outsiders
• Rumble Fish

The movie was directed by Stephen Chbosky, who adapted the screenplay from his 1999 best-selling novel of the same name. Gentle, funny, awkward, and sad, it creates a palpable sense of longing for love, recognition, and inclusion.  Perks was set in the 1990s but contains samples of all the indescribable pain and wondrous joy I remember from my teenage years many decades earlier.

Emma Watson, who grew up playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series, confirms that she is a skilled actor.  She wouldn’t have to be, but she is.  I haven’t seen her costars before, but Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller likewise did an impressive job with some difficult material.

Kids have forever wanted to escape their teenage years to finally become adults.

As adults we yearn our whole lives for what we left behind. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower reminds us why.

Excellent Piece of Hospital Violence Research

Marred by whining...

In September 2010 there was a high profile multiple victim shooting incident at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD.  

"A 50-year-old man who became distraught after hearing about the unfavorable prognosis following surgery on his elderly terminally ill mother drew a concealed handgun and fired on his mother’s surgeon in the hallway of hospital ward. The shooter barricaded himself and his mother in her hospital room, where he fatally shot his mother and then committed suicide. The surgeon survived."

As an element of their multifaceted, interdisciplinary response to the incident Johns Hopkins took it upon themselves to conduct a study of shootings in hospitals.  The resulting paper, prosaically titled Hospital-Based Shootings in the United States: 2000 to 2011,

is a thought-provoking piece of research and analysis.  It observes that hospital shootings are not as common as some believe, offers an interesting analysis of the demographics of perpetrators and victims, and points out several trouble spots requiring additional attention.

Depending on motive and shooting location at or within the hospital the researchers determined that magnetometers are no panacea.  Counter-intuitively they suggest that for locations within the hospital (as opposed to incidents that occur on the grounds) metal detectors seem to be of the least possible value in the emergency department.  Most interestingly, they discerned that weapons taken away from law enforcement, corrections, and security personnel were used in as many as half the shootings in the emergency department. 

Their ideas as to solutions to this complex reality are uneven.  They lightly touch on the idea of excluding all firearms from the ED, but as quickly point out that cops and corrections officers are loathe to go about unarmed.  They suggest that biometric safety locks on firearms would help, but did not bother to determine whether or not such technology is available (it isn't).  They did not examine the idea of making certain that all armed private security personnel working in Emergency Departments receive at least as much advanced weapon retention training as police and use only high security firearms holsters issued to public law enforcement personnel.

Alas, no good deed goes unpunished.   

SecurityInfoWatch tells us the International Association for Healthcare Security & Safety (IAHSS), penned a press release complaining that the paper was incomplete:

"...hospitals should seek out the consultation of a certified healthcare security expert to assist in the development of a healthcare security program -- something not specified in the study.

Although the report shed some light on the issues of violence in hospitals covering the 40 states considered in their research, the study stops short of addressing some of the critical issues facing hospital administrators on a daily basis: How to operate a facility with a well-trained, professional security team, which functions under a well-conceived security plan, and is prepared to handle any crisis situation that may arise."

Where I come from a statistically robust research paper written by physicians and copiously referenced in the academic style, that outlines several areas upon which to focus limited security resources is something security leadership professionals would regard as manna from heaven.  The IAHSS might have aligned itself with the Hopkins study to leverage it for all it's worth to advance the interests of safety in the healthcare workplace.  Instead, they chose to complain that they were not mentioned.

The IAHSS missed the boat on this one.  For me, I'm bringing MDs, epidemiologists, MPHs, and medical statisticians to all my healthcare violence debates from now on.  It's a fine paper.  Be sure to read it if WPV is your thing.