Type II Workplace Violence in Primary Care: A Cranston Ridge Medical Clinic Improvement Protocol for Implementing a Universal, Risk-Informed Screening and Prevention Programme to Improve Staff Safety
Background: Type II workplace violence by patients, relatives, or visitors is an occupational health and patient-safety concern in primary care. Cranston Ridge Medical Clinic (CRMC), a single urban family medicine and walk-in primary care clinic in Calgary, Alberta, plans to implement a universal, risk-informed workplace-safety bundle that is based on observable behaviour, situational risk, and documented safety concerns rather than demographic profiling. Methods: This article describes a single-site internal quality improvement and workplace-safety evaluation protocol. The comparison is CRMC usual practice during the pre-implementation baseline period; there is no concurrent external control group. The planned evaluation will use aggregate, de-identified operational data from a 12-month pre-implementation baseline, a four-week implementation period, and 12 months of post-implementation monitoring. All clinic staff will receive workplace-safety training as part of routine implementation. No staff, patients, or visitors will be recruited as research participants, and the evaluation will not use individual-level staff survey, interview, or focus-group data. Patient/visitor information will be used only as aggregate operational monitoring data when needed to assess safety, access, patient flow, and complaints. Intervention and analysis: The bundle includes worksite analysis, staff training, a brief arrival safety screen, a response algorithm, standardized reporting, monthly safety huddles, and post-incident support. The primary metric will be the Type II workplace-violence incident rate per 1000 clinic visits. Planned analyses include run charts, pre–post rate ratios, and Poisson or negative binomial segmented regression if monthly counts are sufficient. Implementation learning will be summarized from routine training records, safety-huddle summaries, post-incident debrief themes, and other aggregate de-identified operational indicators. Expected contribution: The protocol contributes a transparent, equity-sensitive, and operationally feasible model for balancing staff safety with patient access in primary care.
Authors
- Dawid Karczewski
- Tomasz Karczewski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1991-9184)
- Mihaela Olsen
Publication Details
- Journal
- Primary and Hospital Care
- Published
- 2026-06-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/phc25010007
- Primary Topic
- Workplace Violence and Bullying
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00