Assessment and Measurement of Safety Indicators in Clinical Settings

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that healthcare workers sustained higher injury rates than workers in almost any other industry, adversely impacting clients, employees, and organizations both directly and indirectly. To reduce employee and client injuries in a clinical setting, high-quality measurement and assessment of safety indicators are necessary. Situated within the context of a sustainable measurement system, this chapter describes measurement and data analysis procedures that can be adopted to improve ongoing assessment and develop safety interventions. Specifically, this chapter describes measurement across data sources drawn from the broader safety literature, including incident reports, hazard measures, behavioral observations, and employee concerns, and across some sources unique to clinical settings, including restraint and seclusion measures, bodily indicators of client safety, supervision measures, and caregiver reports.