Earlier this month, a CDC employee was shot and killed at a medical facility in Atlanta, and four others were wounded. In June 2022, two doctors, a receptionist, and a visitor were killed in a Tulsa, Oklahoma medical building, and in October of that same year, two healthcare workers were shot and killed in the maternity unit of a hospital in Dallas.
These are the cases that make the news. However, violence and abusive threats against healthcare workers are nearly daily occurrences. Of all workplace violence, 73% occurs against healthcare workers. Every year, 13% of nurses suffer physical assaults, and 38.8% of nurses experience non-physical violence such as verbal threats, abuse, and sexual harassment.
Emergency department (ED) providers are particularly vulnerable. Federal legislation such as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) requires that every patient who presents to a Medicare-participating ED receive a medical screening exam and stabilization of emergency medical conditions. These laws do not provide exceptions for patients who are violent, or who make physical or sexual threats against healthcare staff. An August 2022 survey showed that 55% of emergency medicine physicians, including one of us, have been personally assaulted while at work, and nearly 80% have witnessed an assault on a colleague.
Read the complete op-ed in Medpage Today.