Patient Violence Incidence Rates

Department of State Hospitals (DSH)-wide Violence Data Annual Rates of Assault from 2010-2020 for the following groups: Patient Assault (A2), Staff Assault (A4). A2 - Patient physical assaults are committed by another patient. Formally defined as “Aggressive Act to Another Patient - Physical: Hitting, pushing, kicking or similar acts directed against another individual to cause potential or actual injury.” This does not include verbal assault, which is coded as “A1.” A4 – Staff physical assaults are committed by a patient. Formally defined as “Aggressive Act to Staff - Physical: Hitting, pushing, kicking, or similar acts directed against a staff person that could cause potential or actual injury.” This does not include verbal assault, which is coded as “A3.” Please Note: 1.Please note that it is an update to the previously published dataset with additional datasets. 2.Violence Rates value (in previous publication) can be calculated as a number per 1000 Patient Days. This number is easily interpreted and enables more accurate comparisons across time. 3.Prior to January 1, 2016 DSH-Atascadero coded an assault as Patient on Staff (A4) only when physical contact was made between patient and staff. All other Department of State Hospitals (DSH)- facilities code an assault as Patient on Staff (A4) either when physical contact was made or when physical contact was attempted. On January 1, 2016 Department of State Hospitals (DSH)--Atascadero began coding assaults in the same manner as all other Department of State Hospitals (DSH)- facilities. 4.Prior to January 1, 2016 Violence incidents were not captured specifically as Physical Contact made or Physical Contact Attempted.

Patients treated is the total number of patients treated across all state hospitals annually.

Total Patient Days is the total number of days that the patient population (with Legal Classes: LPS, MDSO, IST, SVP, NGI, PC2684, MDO, DJJ) of all hospitals were in residence for the given year. This is used to calculate the rate of violence over a period e.g. per 1000 days.