Jeff Mehring, retired regional director of Safety and Security at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, oversaw eight hospitals and multiple medical facilities across 35 years. Here he shares how conflict management training helped reduce hospital violence — shifting teams from reactive de-escalation to proactive non-escalation.
From Reactive De-escalation to Proactive Non-escalation
“I selected Vistelar conflict management training when we were running into difficulties with how to talk with our patients and the other staff that we had to interact with; our nurses, our doctors, our technicians. We needed to have a comprehensive system that would allow us to not only talk with dignity and respect to our patients but to get everyone on the same page at the same time so that we were not creating conflict within the crisis that was taking place when they came to our medical facilities.”
We could be non-escalatory versus relying on de-escalation.
The Results: More Contacts, Fewer Physical Interventions
Once we implemented the Reducing Hospital Violence initiative through Vistelar conflict management training, it was very clear that situations we were dealing with were far less physical contact and more de-escalation.
Our security interactions — the numbers of those interactions — went up significantly because we convinced individuals that we should be involved early in the situation when we could be non-escalatory versus relying on de-escalation.
📊 The key stat: Security contacts went up significantly — but physical interventions went down. Early, proactive engagement prevented situations from escalating to the point of requiring restraint.
As a result, our contacts went up, but our physical interventions went down. That was really significant for us — reducing hospital violence through words primarily.
Getting Everyone on the Same Page
I believe this training is essential for other healthcare professionals and other individuals in industries that have conflict management situations. Reducing hospital violence takes everyone and puts them on the same page. We talk the same way. We act the same way. We interact the same way. Individuals know who’s calling the shots, when to make the transitions, when to hand things over.
As a result, we have situations that are now being resolved through de-escalation.
We don’t have to fight anymore. We don’t have to argue anymore.
Reducing Hospital Violence using conflict management training just makes sense — it made sense to us fiscally and made sense policy-wise.”
Conflict Management Training for Healthcare
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This guide on conflict management and personal safety training is part of our ongoing work with healthcare organisations, hospitals, and clinical teams.