Open Forum

Hi everyone. I would love to hear from those of you who work in a system that has successfully implemented some sort of violence assessment screening tool in your ambulatory care settings. If this is a process that you have in place, can you speak to the following:

• What tool that you are using and how you have implemented the screening process into your practices? 
• How do you determine which patients are screened? Is it all clinical services or only some? All clinical locations or only certain ones? Only patients with certain identified behaviors or risk factors? Or is everyone screened?
• If positive, is there a banner or alert linked, and how long does that remain present?
• If positive, have you built in any staff resources or pompts within the EMR?
• Is there a process for re-evaluation of that screening or a timeline for banner expiration?

We are looking to implement something and are looking to see what other current processes & tools are out there. Thanks in advance!

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Jennifer McMullen MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, CV-BC, AMB-BC
Sr. Clinical Nurse Specialist for Ambulatory Care
University of Rochester Medicine

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Hi Jennifer,

My hospital system has implemented both inpatient and outpatient what we call the aggression scale.

It is a tab within Epic that the nursing staff fills out daily, with patient changes, or prn. It is done on all patients 18 years or older throughout the whole system. It is observational questions. If staff answers yes, it cascades more questions and ultimately gives a score which is tied to the risk level.

A banner is then shown in the patient chart indefinitely, and we use magnets on the door frame to notify other people that the patient may be violent or aggressive. Reevaluation is done daily or with patient changes.

My team did an abstract/poster presentation on this last month at the AAACN conference in Orlando! Please reach out with any other questions!

Shannon Saratowski, BSN, RN, NPD-BC

smsaratowski@geisinger.edu
Nursing Professional Development Specialist

Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA

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Original Message:
Sent: 04-30-2026 11:02
From: Jennifer McMullen
Subject: Violence assessment/screening tool

Hi everyone. I would love to hear from those of you who work in a system that has successfully implemented some sort of violence assessment screening tool in your ambulatory care settings. If this is a process that you have in place, can you speak to the following:

• What tool that you are using and how you have implemented the screening process into your practices? 
• How do you determine which patients are screened? Is it all clinical services or only some? All clinical locations or only certain ones? Only patients with certain identified behaviors or risk factors? Or is everyone screened?
• If positive, is there a banner or alert linked, and how long does that remain present?
• If positive, have you built in any staff resources or pompts within the EMR?
• Is there a process for re-evaluation of that screening or a timeline for banner expiration?

We are looking to implement something and are looking to see what other current processes & tools are out there. Thanks in advance!

------------------------------
Jennifer McMullen MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, CV-BC, AMB-BC
Sr. Clinical Nurse Specialist for Ambulatory Care
University of Rochester Medicine

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