Mercyhealth is a healthcare system consisting of five hospitals and over 80 supporting clinics. As a system, they received an increasing number of anecdotal reports of workplace violence with no supporting documentation in the form of occurrence reports. Workplace violence is any incidence of verbal, physical or sexual aggression against a member of the healthcare team. A team consisting of their critical care supervisor, behavioral health manager, and system analyst, worked to develop a group of invested work partners from various disciplines to create a better way to capture incidents of workplace violence. The team also aimed to change the culture and increase support for reporting workplace violence. 

The project focused on increasing awareness of potentially violent patients and ways to communicate those risks to everyone who works with the patient. Through the development of a new flowsheet within the EMR and the adoption of using a violence risk tool to help predict violence, they developed a process to increase real-time reporting to leadership and other work partners. They have been able to make significant improvements in reporting and responding to workplace violence. There were 50 reports of workplace violence among five hospitals in 2023. In 2024 that number increased to nearly 900. There has been culture change within the organization making it safe to report instances of workplace violence and a focus on making the workplace safer.