The healthcare industry is confronting a severe workplace violence crisis that jeopardizes worker safety and imposes a substantial financial burden, estimated at $12.7 billion each year in the United States. In response, OPTICS for Healthcare has launched a pioneering AI-driven platform designed to assess risks and ensure compliance within healthcare environments. Healthcare professionals experience workplace violence incidents at a rate five times higher than workers in private industry, with more than 2,000 nurses and nursing assistants facing physical violence daily.
The financial repercussions are profound. Each violent incident requiring medical treatment costs an average of $32,000, while staff turnover expenses for recruiting and onboarding a new registered nurse can reach $82,000. Legal settlements further strain resources, averaging between $800,000 and $1.2 million per case. David Brake, Co-founder and CEO of OPTICS for Healthcare, stated that healthcare workers face unprecedented safety challenges that compromise their wellbeing and patient care.
The OPTICS platform integrates artificial intelligence with human oversight across five key components to provide a systematic, evidence-based approach. Its features include a current state workplace assessment, a GAP analysis report, a collaborative workflow management system, a peer-reviewed critical content library, and a management dashboard. These tools generate facility-specific policies, offer real-time regulatory updates, and provide leaders with detailed analytics. For more details on the platform's approach, visit https://opticshc.com.
Pilot programs for the OPTICS platform are scheduled to begin this fall, focusing on client implementation, user experience, and component effectiveness. Kim Urbanek, OPTICS Co-founder and Chief of Innovation & Practice, explained that the pilots aim to ensure the platform is easy to use and delivers on its promise to improve staff safety, reduce liability exposure, enhance regulatory compliance, and decrease turnover, thereby increasing the quality of patient care. With a nationwide release targeted for early 2026, the platform is poised to serve a broad spectrum of healthcare facilities across the U.S., including hospitals, assisted living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and physician practice groups.
