Violence Against Healthcare Workers

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, on June 11 of this month, the House Education and Labor Committee reported out legislation, H.R. 1309, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Healthcare and Social Service Workers Act. Mr. Speaker, this is a culmination and a milestone of a 7-year process that began in 2013.

Like many Members of Congress, I have been hearing about stories of rising violence in emergency rooms, ambulances, and treatment facilities to nurses, doctors, and nurses aides that showed a disturbing trend.

One such case was Helene Andrews, a registered nurse from Danbury, Connecticut, who was assaulted multiple times during her career. Shortly before she retired, while she was dispensing medication to a patient, she was thrown to the floor and her pelvis was shattered.

In 2013, former Congressman George Miller of California and I requested a report from the Government Accountability Office to dig deeper to determine how pervasive this violence is and what strategies are at our disposal to reverse this trend. The report, which was completed in 2016, found that workers in healthcare facilities experienced substantially higher rates of nonfatal injuries due to violence in the workplace compared to workers overall.

Between 2006 and 2016, there was a 70 percent increase in violent incidents that occurred in healthcare and social service workplaces that resulted in employees being away from work. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare and social service workers are nearly five times more likely to suffer a serious injury from workplace violence than workers in other settings.

Up to 30 percent of hospital workers report being assaulted at work. For employees in psych hospitals, that number is drastically higher. Nearly 50 percent of emergency room physicians have been physically assaulted at work, and 80 percent report that this violence affects patient care.

Despite these alarming statistics, we know that violence against this workforce is, in fact, grossly underreported. Many medical professionals are discouraged from reporting incidents, fear further stigmatizing patients, or are just told: ``Move on. Shake it off. It is part of the job.''

Mr. Speaker, during the course of work on this legislation, we actually heard from the Cleveland Clinic in northeast Ohio, which is one of the largest healthcare networks in America. The CEO of Cleveland Clinic, Tom Mihaljevic, gave his 2019 state of the clinic address, where he described that there is a national epidemic of violence against healthcare workers, especially in emergency room departments. Last year alone, nearly 30,000 weapons were confiscated from patients and visitors in that healthcare network. At the time we did the markup, one of the members of our committee actually expressed disbelief that, in fact, that statistic was accurate.

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Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, it is obviously not limited just to the State of Ohio. We know these incidents are preventable.

Since 1996, OSHA has published voluntary guidelines that recommend commonsense preventative measures that employers can take to reduce the risk and severity of violent incidents, and that is what our bill does. It basically requires, through OSHA, that there be a violence prevention plan in healthcare settings.

It is not one size fits all. It recognizes that some facilities are different from others. But, in fact, there has to be a way to train staff to understand patient risk, to understand ways to deescalate violence, and a way to design workforces to reduce the incidence of violence.

In addition, it requires that there be a reporting mechanism to OSHA when these incidents occur. Today, in a hospital, if there is a slip and fall, it must be reported; if there is a chemical leak, it must be reported; but if a nurse is punched, kicked, or spit at, that is not required to be reported, and that is what our bill will do.

The legislation was reported out with a favorable report. We have 187 cosponsors of the legislation. It is bipartisan, and it will be brought up this summer for final action.

We have waited far too long to protect the caregivers, the people in the caring professions which every American relies on and depends on to be healed, consoled, and cared for. Yet it is clear from the GAO report that they are being subjected to incidents of violence which, again, are totally unacceptable and which hinder their ability to do their mission. It is time to pass H.R. 1309.

Again, I applaud the support from the emergency room physicians, the emergency room nurses, and the American Nurses Association, as well as a host of other groups that are affiliated with our healthcare delivery system.

Let's protect the caregivers. Let's pass H.R. 1309.

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