City of Newton
NEWTON, Kan. — NMC Health and the City of Newton have launched a Hospital Resource Officer (HRO) program, the first of its kind in the state, to help ensure the safety of patients and staff on the NMC Health campus while building bridges in the community.
The program follows years of partnering between the two organizations and expands the presence of Newton Police Department officers at the NMC Health Medical Center, the NMC Health campus, and surrounding neighborhood between the hours of 6:30 pm and 6:30 am. NPD officers assigned to cover the neighborhoods which include the NMC Health campus serve as the nightly HRO. These officers add frequent rounds of campus parking lots as well as interior rounds at the Medical Center to ensure patient, family, and staff safety.
“According to the Bureau of Labor and Statics, ‘Healthcare workers accounted for 73 percent of nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses due to violence in 2018.’ Unfortunately, that figure is growing. That’s why both the City of Newton and NMC Health have invested in this program for the good of the hospital and the community,” says Vallerie Gleason, president and CEO of NMC Health.
While the community policing model brings officers to NMC Health multiple times during the night shift for patrol and surveillance, the program also serves the following purposes:
To build confidence in each other through interactions with NMC Health on-duty staff and NPD;
Enhance perceptions of feeling safe in the workspace;
Inform HRO officers of potential points of behavioral escalation with patients or guests;
Pre-empt known issues from escalating whenever possible by working together in advance; and build trust.
“Our goal in this program has been to ensure the welfare of the staff and patients at the hospital and make sure it remains a place of safety and care for the community,” Chief Craig Dunlavy said. “It’s very gratifying to see how the partnership is already making a positive difference.”
“When we started piloting the program a few months ago, we knew we were breaking new ground so we wanted to evaluate its effectiveness and potential future,” noted Gleason. “Suffice to say, it has been an enormous success, and we can’t thank the City of Newton and our NPD officers enough.”
As part of this continued safety partnership, NMC Health designated space in its Medical Center starting in 2018 for NPD officers. This dedicated space provides officers a safe place where they can decompress after an event, wait on a situation in the Emergency Department, and relax as they complete reports.
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