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The Chronicle previously reported that DPH\u2019s internal records showed that the hospital averaged six assaults a month on staff that caused injuries, and had logged a climbing number of physical workplace violent incidents.<\/p>\n
In a survey conducted by the hospital\u2019s union representing nurses, 99% of respondents reported being assaulted or abused at work, and 61% of them said they had been attacked at work more than 10 times.<\/p>\n
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DPH\u2019s internal records showed that the hospital averaged six assaults a month on staff that caused injuries, and had logged a climbing number of physical workplace violent incidents \u2014 or nearly one a day.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, DPH Director Daniel Tsai said in an interview that officials were \u201cnot shying away from\u201d areas where the department must improve. The audit identified a need for a consistent process around security emergencies, Tsai said, and was based on input from thousands of employees and a group of more than 100 leaders from DPH and UCSF. Staff across Zuckerberg General and in other outlying clinics lacked clarity about how to report threats and respond to them, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNot having a clear understanding of who does what, under what circumstances, certainly does not enable any team in a moment of crisis to know exactly how to respond,\u201d said Tsai.<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of the December attack, DPH committed $15 million a year to improve security and added four people to its security team, a department that was previously manned by a single employee: DPH Director of Security Basil Price.<\/p>\n
The audit also recommended improving lighting, adding a weapons detection system and restricting entrances at Building 80\/90, where Ward 86 is located. The audit called for consistent availability of \u201cduress devices\u201d like panic buttons, video monitoring, access to emergency call boxes, and emergency phone access. DPH officials said those improvements had already been made.<\/p>\n
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The audit also showed that it took staff at least eight minutes to call a Code Blue \u2013 the alarm hospital staff initiate when a patient suffers a medical emergency that requires immediate lifesaving efforts \u2013 and at least 11 minutes for paramedics to arrive after Rangel was stabbed. SF General CEO Susan P. Ehrlich said that during that time, clinic staff were actively treating Alberto from the moment he was injured.<\/p>\n
In mid-November, staffers had raised concerns about Tortolero-Arriechi, who seemed to be growing increasingly fixated on his physician, the audit shows. By Nov. 13, Tortelero-Arriechi visited the City Clinic, another local sexual health clinic, and demanded to see his doctor but was rebuffed. A week later, he visited Ward 86 for an appointment, exhibiting \u201celevated behaviors\u201d and saying he planned to sue the doctor, according to the audit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The document notes that between Nov. 24 and 26, hospital security staff discussed the case, and tried to contact Tortolero-Arriechi several times but couldn\u2019t reach him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The audit shows the hospital\u2019s security director and partners at the sheriff\u2019s office did not take further action or run a criminal background check on Tortolero-Arriechi until Dec. 4. That day, Tortolero-Arriechi appeared at the City Clinic demanding to speak to his doctor \u2013 and vowing to return to the site every day until he was allowed to see him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That same morning, Ward 86 staff called DPH Security to report that Tortolero-Arriechi was planning to return to the clinic by 1 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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DPH staff attempted to contact him several times, but were again unsuccessful, according to the audit.<\/p>\n
After security personnel ran Tortolero-Arriechi\u2019s information through a criminal history check \u2014 which yielded no outstanding warrants \u2014 the sheriff\u2019s office dispatched one deputy, who came to Ward 86 and guarded the doctor, according to the audit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Around 1:30 p.m., Tortolero-Arriechi walked into the clinic, which had no metal detectors, and was directed to Rangel when he asked to see the doctor.<\/p>\n
As the two were talking, Tortolero-Arriechi \u201cwithout warning \u2026\u00a0 stabbed Rangel from behind with a knife,\u201d at which point other clinic staff intervened, separating the two men and attempting to treat Rangel.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe have had a lot of security protocols,\u201d Tsai said, \u201cand this assessment builds on that. It shows the additional improvement areas that we have looked pretty rigorously at and laid bare for everybody to see.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rally outside Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital following the fatal stabbing of a hospital social worker in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[184,7,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-280587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-san-francisco","11":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","12":"tag-san-francisco-news","13":"tag-sf","14":"tag-sf-headlines","15":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}