Amid growing concern around the safety of healthcare workers, lawmakers have stepped in with plans to bolster protections. A significant proportion of clinicians feel physically unsafe in their professional environments, prompting a bipartisan effort to introduce legislation focused on combatting this issue. The proposed bill plans to extend federal protections, similar to those assigned to airport and aircraft workers, to healthcare staff, according to recent research.
Known as the Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees Act, the legislation aims to classify assaults on hospital workers as a federal crime. Introduced by Senators Marco Rubio from Florida and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the bill seeks to establish severe repercussions for such incidents, echoing the Senate’s rendition of the SAVE Act.
We should note that while 40 states have implemented laws to increase penalties for violent incidents against healthcare workers, no federal law currently offers protection from assault and intimidation to these professionals. If passed, the proposed bill would subject those who knowingly assault hospital employees and contractors to fines and potential imprisonment of up to 10 years, or 20 years in instances involving a deadly weapon, or any violence committed during a public crisis.
Moreover, the legislation includes a clause for a reasonable defense if the violent act occurs at the hands of someone suffering from a physical, mental, or intellectual disability. The proposed bill has been widely endorsed by healthcare industry groups such as the American Hospital Association, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Emergency Nurses Association, and America’s Essential Hospitals.
Violence against healthcare staff has escalated alarmingly, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting a 63% rise in injury rates from such attacks between 2011 and 2018. The situation has further deteriorated during the COVID-19 pandemic, as indicated by the findings from Press Ganey research, which documents two assaults on nursing staff per hour during the second quarter of last year.
The gap in federal law concerning the protection of caregivers against violence has spurred urgency for legislative reform. An official statement from American Hospital Association CEO Rick Pollack commended Senators Manchin and Rubio for their leadership on the bill, heralding it as a “significant step forward in protecting our workforce.”