As home hospital programs continue to grow—employment in the home health industry is projected to increase by nearly 30% by 2029—so does the concern that home healthcare professionals are increasingly vulnerable to assault and harassment.

In an attempt to protect staff when they’re off the hospital campus, some tech companies, including healthcare security company Canopy, have developed ways workers can alert security when they feel threatened.

Healthcare workers already deal with alarming rates of workplace violence in the clinical setting, with over 80% of nurses seeing or experiencing workplace violence in the last year, according to a February National Nurses United survey. In the same survey, half of respondents indicated that violence had worsened in healthcare facilities in the previous year, compared to 21.9% in 2021.

The risk of physical assault or harassment is also present in a home setting, and hospital execs have less control over what happens outside of their facilities. At the same time, healthcare at home is advantageous for health systems because it can free up hospital beds faster and help patients recover more comfortably in their own environment.

Recently, some hospitals have introduced the use of devices that alert safety teams without escalating the situation with patients. Earlier this year, software company Cognosos introduced a wearable clinicians can activate in an emergency.

Healthcare tech company Canopy, which was founded in 2019, also makes wearables to help improve workplace safety.

Keep reading here.—CM

What does the future of healthcare look like? Well, we don’t have the full picture, but we do know where you can go to get a good look at how the industry is innovating.

Don’t miss HLTH, the must-attend event for health and innovation leaders, focused on the theme “boldly stepping into health’s future.” This year, they'll be taking over the Venetian Expo Center in Las Vegas from October 20–23.

Get your in-person ticket to access HLTH’s content, which will include new tracks, such as:

• AI Pavilion: Experience live interactive demonstrations around use cases for AI in healthcare.
• Nurses @ HLTH: Elevate the voices of nurses and nurse leaders.
• Food as Medicine: See how nutrition and healthcare go hand in hand.

Tap in to the latest trends in healthcare. Get your ticket today.

Welcome to Making Rounds, where we spotlight voices from across the healthcare industry. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

This edition of Making Rounds spotlights Lynn-Marie Morski, president of the Psychedelic Medicine Association, a professional organization that educates clinicians on psychedelic research and best practices. Morski talked about how she got into the psychedelics field, how the organization teaches healthcare workers, and what the most fulfilling aspects of her work are.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in healthcare?

I run the Psychedelic Medicine Association, where our mission is to educate healthcare professionals about the therapeutic uses of psychedelics so that they can feel comfortable discussing treatments involving psychedelic medicine with their patients when appropriate.

We work with healthcare professionals from across the spectrum, from primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, to therapists, counselors, and social workers—basically, anyone to whom a patient may show up and say, “I am struggling with depression or anxiety or PTSD,” or whatever other medical condition that psychedelics may be able to address. We want all of those practitioners to be aware when there is a psychedelic option to address those conditions and feel comfortable discussing those options.

How did you start working in the psychedelic medicine space?

I was working as a physician at the Veterans Administration (VA) when I first learned about psychedelic medicine. I saw how many of the conditions that my veteran patients were struggling with without good solutions happened to be well addressed by psychedelic options. However, as a department of defense contractor, I wasn’t able to tell them about those options. In 2019, I decided to leave the VA and make it my mission to finally be able to tell specifically clinicians about these [options].

Keep reading here.—MA