Northeast Healthcare System
This case study highlights how the Northeast Healthcare System partnered with Canopy to transform its safety culture and drastically reduce workplace violence (WPV) across its urban and rural facilities.
Results at a glance
annual decrease in turnover rates with enhanced safety measures in place
decrease in assaults in the first 6 months
reporting "my leadership cares about my workplace safety," up from 60%
increase in applicants over one year
A system under pressure
This Northeast Healthcare System, which employs 11,400+ people and manages ~1,800 patient beds, faced a critical safety crisis.
- Skyrocketing Violence: A 40% rise in workplace violence incidents occurred over two years, particularly in pediatric behavioral health.
- High Turnover: Safety concerns fueled a 29% annual turnover rate and low nursing morale.
- Slow Response Times: Geographical limitations meant response times could be as high as 15 minutes in rural areas.
- Culture of Silence: Only 60% of staff trusted leadership regarding safety, leading many to avoid reporting incidents altogether.
"Within an hour and a half of us deploying the badges, we had an incident... it was unbelievable that this worked this fast, that quickly, and we wanted everybody in the organization to know."
The impact
The system implemented Canopy’s wearable technology across 2.76 million square feet.
The impact was immediate, resulting in a 30% reduction in assaults and a 50% increase in incident reporting within the first six months. By using data-driven insights to identify peak incident times and high-risk units, the system achieved an additional 15% decrease in violence through optimized staffing models.
These improvements transformed the workplace culture, increasing staff confidence in leadership from 60% to 80% and causing annual turnover rates to decrease by 15%. Today, the healthcare system uses its strong safety record as a primary recruitment tool, leading to a 10% annual increase in job applicants.
"We knew we couldn't eliminate workplace violence entirely, but we could certainly prevent the harm coming to our team members. We wanted them to feel empowered, not monitored. Once we rolled it out, you could feel the shift—they finally felt safer."
