Attacks against health care workers continue to make headlines across Pennsylvania. Lawmakers have been slow to respond.
Among the worst 11 Investigates has reported on: a patient attacking a patient care technician in an Altoona emergency room, leaving him with a cracked skull and brain bleed in November, and a patient’s family member holding ICU staff at gunpoint in York in February of last year. The incident left employees shot and a young police officer dead.
In the last few months, Channel 11 has reported on more than a dozen assaults, including a man charged with assaulting a doctor and two other staff members at Penn Highlands Mon Valley, a woman police say punched a nurse in the head four times and pulled hair out of her head and a man at Jefferson Hospital who police say knocked a nurse to the ground, bit a nurse and tried to bite others.
11 Investigates, in our ongoing investigation, Code Blue, has reported on attempts to protect healthcare workers through legislation. None of those efforts have made it to Governor Josh Shapiro’s desk.
Other states are taking action. For example, in California, hospitals are now required by law to install metal detectors to keep out weapons.
“We’ve had doctors and nurses assaulted, stabbed, shot in the parking lot, followed on the way to their cars,” said California State assemblymember Mike Gipson.
Gipson proposed Assembly Bill 2975, which was signed into law and is now in effect. The workplace violence prevention law requires hospitals to install weapons detection systems at hospital entrances by 2027.
“It made sense, it was a common-sense measure,” Gipson said, adding that other states should use his bill as a model. “How many more people have to die? How many more people have to die before you get it?”
11 Investigates was in Harrisburg last May when Pennsylvania’s Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention Act passed the PA House with bipartisan support. One year later, it is still sitting in the Senate Labor and Industry Committee.
Senator Devlin Robinson (R-Allegheny) chairs the Senate Labor and Industry Committee. He has the power to call a hearing on the bill and ultimately hold a vote to put it before the Senate floor.
11 Investigates reached out to Robinson, requesting a sit-down interview and asking specifically why he has not called a hearing since the committee received the bill last May.
His spokeswoman sent 11 Investigates the following statement.
“In this era of rising violence against healthcare professionals, protecting these dedicated medical personnel who work so hard to save lives and keep us healthy is a top concern. That’s why I’ve been working with the various stakeholders involved in this issue to ensure this legislation best achieves our shared goal of supporting the nurses, doctors, and hospital staff who just want to do their jobs well without worrying about this type of unacceptable workplace violence. Those conversations are ongoing and productive, and I look forward to continuing to work with the interested parties on this important legislation.”
Robinson and his staff did not answer questions about if he plans to call a hearing or when.
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