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What Lies Beneath Will Cost You–Even Without a Fine The Incident That Made the News On December 4, 2025, Alberto Rangel, a 51-year-old social worker, was stabbed and killed at San Francisco General Hospital’s HIV clinic, Ward 86. He came to work that day to help people. He did not go home. Six months later, the reports from California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health have landed, and so have the fines — a $142,700 fine against the University of California, San Fr

What might an anthropologist conclude about workplace violence in healthcare in 2026? On June 2, 2025, we published the first entry in the OPTICS for Healthcare Newsroom. It was a research report commissioned by the American Hospital Association and conducted by the University of Washington's Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center. The assignment was straightforward: estimate the financial costs and other impacts to hospitals from all types of violence, abuse, and t

OPTICS for Healthcare invites peer review of a new white paper on workplace violence — written by someone from outside the industry, on purpose.

That's a Little Like Asking If a Swiss Army Knife Is Just a Can Opener. One of the things I genuinely value about my role at OPTICS is the opportunity to talk with healthcare leaders. Every conversation teaches me something — about how organizations are structured, where they feel pressure, what keeps people up at night, and how they think about the problems they are trying to solve. A recent conversation has stayed with me — not because it went badly, but because it didn't g

A conversation with Lori Severson, Risk Management Consultant, Lockton Companies — and Member, OPTICS for Healthcare Advisory Board

We have plenty of statistics. We know that 81% of nurses have experienced workplace violence. We know that one incident can cost a healthcare organization $32,000 in direct medical expenses, and that legal settlements average between $800,000 and $1.2 million. We know the turnover numbers. We know the wait time data. We know what the research says. What we do not have enough of are the stories behind those numbers. The nurse who held it together after a patient threw somethin

One Action Could Change Everything April is Workplace Violence Prevention Awareness Month. Most organizations will mark it with a social post or two. Maybe a training reminder. Maybe nothing at all. We are not doing that. This month, OPTICS for Healthcare is committing to something specific: every business day in April — all 22 of them — we will post one key fact about workplace violence in healthcare and one simple, concrete action anyone can take that day. Not eventually. T

A plain-language overview of the OIG's FY 2026 Audit Workplan — and what it signals for healthcare leaders If you work in healthcare safety, here's a headline worth paying attention to: the Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has announced it will audit OSHA's workplace violence prevention efforts for the first time in 25 years. That number should stop you cold. Twenty-five years. The audit is included in the DOL OIG's Fiscal Year 2026 Audit Workplan — a p

When 10,500 nurses walked off the job in New York City — and stayed off for five weeks in the middle of winter — I paid close attention. And I recalled conversations with nurses, healthcare workers, administrators, and safety leaders—all of whom have told me some version of the same thing: We know something has to change, we're just not all in agreement on what that is and where to start. Safe staffing and workplace violence protections were the central demands that drove th

What This Week's News Confirms Each week, Kim and I spend time together reviewing the articles posted by the OPTICS team in the OPTICS Newsroom ( www.OPTICSHC.com/news ). This week we came away with a renewed sense of urgency and confirmation that we're building exactly what healthcare organizations need right now. The trends are unmistakable: workplace violence in healthcare isn't just persisting, it's escalating. But here's what gives us confidence: OPTICS was designed from

What 15,000 Striking Workers Tell Us About Healthcare's Breaking Point and the Need for Collaboration As nearly 15,000 nurses enter their third week on strike at three of New York City's premier hospital systems, a critical question emerges: Are their demands unreasonable, or are they simply asking for what nurses nationwide desperately need? The answer reveals an uncomfortable truth for everyone involved. The National Context The NYC nurses aren't outliers—they're the visibl

A Step Forward for Healthcare Safety When New York announced its new workplace violence prevention requirements for hospitals and nursing homes in December, we were not surprised. What New York is requiring by September 2027 outlines what healthcare organizations will need to implement: a structured, systematic approach to preventing workplace violence. The timing is significant. Healthcare workplace violence has increased dramatically, with some facilities experiencing 60% i

Many healthcare leaders may not realize that the anxiety their patients feel about not knowing what's happening, might be driving them toward violence. New research published in the Journal of Emergency Nursing in 2025 examined 315 emergency department patients and found that "intolerance of uncertainty" is a major predictor of violence tendency. What's Intolerance of Uncertainty? Think about what it’s like to be a patient in an Emergency Department (ED). You are in pain. Y

As Director of Operations for OPTICS for Healthcare, I spend a lot of time thinking about our AI-native platform and its Agentic AI components. I work with an incredible team of people, including the OPTICS Advisory Board , who are all invested in making the future of healthcare better for the healthcare professionals on the front line and the executives who manage the bottom line. As a team, we believe that it is possible for AI to predict the future in healthcare, at least

When I think about transformative leaders in healthcare technology, one name stands above the rest: Judy Faulkner, founder and CEO of Epic Systems. In 1979, Faulkner started coding in her Wisconsin basement with $70,000 borrowed from friends and family, a single minicomputer the size of a washer-dryer, and two part-time assistants. She wrote the original code herself. Today, Epic maintains the medical records of over 325 million patients—more than half the U.S. population—and

Healthcare organizations spend millions promoting their organizations' value proposition to consumers. But when it comes to delivering what patients actually want—happiness, peace of mind, and improved quality of life—which organization asset matters most? Take the Quiz Question: What is a healthcare organization's most important asset when it comes to delivering what patients and consumers value the most? A) Advanced technology and medical equipment The latest MRI machines,

(Part 1) Healthcare organizations face a crisis that's quietly eroding their bottom line while threatening the industry's future: workplace violence. According to a recent World Health Organization report, an estimated 38% of healthcare workers will suffer physical violence at some point in their careers—violence perpetrated primarily by patients and visitors. Yet the true scope of this epidemic remains hidden, as research cited by WHO suggests that fewer than half of all inc

How Political Violence Threatens Healthcare Workplace Safety The recent assassinations of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, and United Healthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson, have reignited discussions about politically charged violence in America, but healthcare organizations and security professionals face a unique challenge: understanding how this broader political volatility can infiltrate their work environments. As political polarization reaches new extremes, healthcare workpl

A Healthcare Workplace Violence Case Study* Background A mid-sized behavioral healthcare facility in the U.S. found itself facing...

Healthcare Employment and the Churn Factor The recent headlines about healthcare's hiring slowdown tell only half the story. While...