Call me maybe: addressing the root causes of workplace violence in rural Texas through Telehealth.
At Titus Regional Medical Center in rural Texas, workplace violence in the emergency department was tied to psychiatric boarding, limited psychiatrist access, and patients in acute crisis. Kathy Griffis and Brandon Nance explain how rural telepsychiatry helped reduce ED boarding, support nurses, improve safety, and get patients treatment earlier.
Episode Summary
This episode examines how Titus Regional Medical Center in rural Texas addressed workplace violence by focusing on one of its root causes: psychiatric patients boarding in the emergency department without timely specialty support. Kathy Griffis describes how limited psychiatric access, overcrowded mental health facilities, and emergency physicians' discomfort managing psychiatric medication created risk for patients and staff. Through a Texas Hospital Association Leadership Fellows capstone and partnership with TORCH and Texas Tech, the state funded a telepsychiatry initiative that brought psychiatric consultation into rural emergency departments. Brandon Nance explains how the program changed frontline ED practice by helping patients receive medication adjustments, safety planning, and earlier intervention, while freeing staff, reducing boarding, improving nurse safety, and supporting compassion in a high-risk environment.
People Mentioned
About the Guest
Kathy Griffis & Brandon Nance
Vice President of Clinical Operations and Chief Nursing Officer, Titus Regional Medical Center · Emergency Department Charge Nurse, Titus Regional Medical Center
Kathy Griffis is Vice President of Clinical Operations and Chief Nursing Officer at Titus Regional Medical Center in Mount Pleasant, Texas. She has helped lead rural workforce safety and telepsychiatry efforts focused on reducing workplace violence and improving care for psychiatric patients in the emergency department. Brandon Nance is an emergency department charge nurse at Titus Regional Medical Center. A Titus County native, veteran, former law enforcement officer, and ER nurse, he brings frontline insight into the intersection of behavioral health, law enforcement, emergency nursing, and rural workforce safety.