NMC Health and the City of Newton have launched a Hospital Resource Officer (HRO) program to help ensure the safety of patients and staff on the NMC Health campus while building bridges in the community.
The HRO program is the first of its kind in the state of Kansas.
The program expands the presence of Newton Police Department (NPD) officers at the NMC Health Medical Center, the NMC Health campus, and surrounding neighborhood between the hours of 6:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. NPD officers assigned to cover the neighborhoods which include the NMC Health campus serve as the nightly HRO. These officers add frequent rounds of campus parking lots as well as interior rounds at the Medical Center to ensure patient, family, and staff safety.
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statics, Healthcare workers accounted for 73% of nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses due to violence in 2018, with those figures growing through 2023.
