Preventing and Mitigating Workplace Violence in Health Care: Strategies for Leaders

After completing this online course, you will be able to: 

• Build reliable risk assessment and response systems that reduce incidents of violence and incivility while improving overall workforce safety.

• Use standardized data and measurement frameworks to track incidents, identify patterns, and evaluate prevention efforts.

• Create and lead interdisciplinary threat management teams that bring together clinical, security, legal, and organizational perspectives.

• Navigate legal and regulatory requirements to ensure compliance, reduce liability, and strengthen prevention strategies.

• Apply validated screening tools and communication methods to identify risks early, escalate concerns appropriately, and prevent violence. 

Jeffrey Boord, MD, MPH is the Chief Quality and Safety Officer for Parkview Health System in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Dr. Boord is a graduate of the Veterans Affairs National Quality Scholars Fellowship Program and earned his master’s degree in public health from Vanderbilt University. In his current role, he oversees patient and workforce safety, quality and accreditation, infection prevention, and medical staff services. He is executive co-sponsor for the Parkview Health Workplace Violence Prevention program. He served as Co-Chair of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Leadership Alliance’s Workforce Safety Workgroup from 2018-2022, and as Expert Panel Co-chair and Advisor for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Workplace Violence Prevention Accelerator 10/2023-9/2024. He is co-author of IHI’s Framework for Standardized Data Collection of Workplace Violence Incidents in Health Care. (2025, available at ihi.org). He currently serves on the Indiana Hospital Association’s Council on Quality and Patient Safety.Jeffrey Boord, M,D MPH, Chief Quality and Safety Officer, Parkview Health 

Karen Garvey, MPA/HCA, BSN, RN, DFASHRM, CPHRM, CPPS, serves as the Vice President for Safety & Clinical Risk Management for Parkland Health in Dallas, Texas. Reporting to the Chief Quality & Safety Officer, her current responsibilities include health system oversight of Regulatory & Accreditation, Patient Safety and Clinical Risk Management, Quality & Safety Education. She has been the system lead for Parkland's journey to becoming a high-reliability organization. Additionally, she is the executive sponsor for the SPARKs (Supporting Parkland Staff) Peer Support Program and the chairperson for enterprise Workforce Safety Initiatives, which involves proactive and reactive strategies to decrease violence against our workforce. She serves on local, state, and national committees collaborating to address this significant issue collectively. She is often requested to speak in forums about various activities implemented to address the issue. In March 2023, Karen testified in Austin, Texas, on behalf of Parkland to the Texas House Committee on Public Health in support of HB 240 to prevent workplace violence against all healthcare workers. The bill was passed and signed into law on May 15, 2023, and the penalties for those harming any healthcare worker will be more severe. The law became effective September 1, 2023, with all Texas healthcare organizations to comply by September 1, 2024. She is also the 2025 Chair of the Dallas-Fort Worth Workplace Violence Committee.  

Karen is also active in the American Society for Healthcare Risk Managers (ASHRM), having served two terms on the ASHRM Advisory Board, and continues to be an active ASHRM Faculty member for the CPHRM Review Course and national teaching faculty for the IHI certification in Patient Safety credential. Karen received the DFW Great 100 Award for Nurses in 2017, the Healthcare Risk Management Leadership Award from ASHRM in October 2019, the ASHRM Presidential Citation Award for ASHRM in October 2021, and the Parkland inaugural DAISY Award for Nursing Ethics. Karen was highlighted as a “Leader to Watch” in the October 2023 AONL Nurse Leader publication.  

 Eileen Murtagh Kurowski, MD, MS is the Chief Safety Officer, the Michael and Suzette Fisher Family Chair for Safety, and a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Anderson Center for Health System Excellence at Cincinnati Children’s. She completed internal-medicine pediatrics residency at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at CCHMC. She has extensive training in quality improvement science and has completed the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Patient Safety Executive Development Training.  Dr. Murtagh Kurowski currently oversees the complex portfolio of patient and workforce safety, including co-chairing the workplace violence prevention committee as well as regulatory and accreditation efforts at CCHMC.