Employee Murdered by Violent Client on the Job

Case Overview

This case takes place in Virginia and involves a young woman who was murdered on the job. She was sent out to perform functions much like a professional social worker but with no education or training in the field. The employer offered services to persons with serious and persistent mental health problems, many of whom had a history of violence. The employer did not do any background checks on its clients and did not obtain medical records. The employer only obtained a name and address and sometimes a diagnosis. This particular person who murdered the young woman had a history of being violent and unstable. He had previously barricaded another employee at his residence. The employer took no action and sent her to the residence anyway with no supervision. On the 4th visit, she was chased down the street and stabbed to death. The plaintiff alleges the employer did not take enough action to ensure the safety of its employees given the violent history of the client.

Questions to the Psychiatry expert and their responses

What is the procedure for determining if a client has a violent and unstable history?

It will be important to assess the guidelines and protocol that the defendant organization had in place prior to this incident to ensure employee safety and patient monitoring.

Could this incident and her death have been preventable?

Protection of the employee is key. I have taught on this subject, focusing on health compliance and employee safety. There are multiple laws and regulations that should have led to the deceased's protection, and these rules were clearly not followed. It certainly sounds like they failed to implement appropriate policies for patient monitoring and employee safety in this instance (which suggest that the problem may have been - or continues to be - system wide). This is an issue that is very much within my area of expertise as it is a topic I teach, implement in active practice and believe is fundamental to the success of a community healthcare organization.

About the expert

This qualified expert has over 30 years of experience and has authored a guide for standard of care for behavioral health institutions. She is an active as a speaker in topics including the safe management of behavioral health patients and risky behavioral patients. Finally, she has assumed such pertinent high ranking prior appointments as the Director of Risk Management for a psychiatry department as well as a Program Director for a psychiatric institute.

E-000443

Specialties:

Psychiatry