Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | June 2, 2025 | Worcester Business Journal 9 want to beat the shit out of us," she said. e pervasiveness of these abuses have only added to the workforce shortage in ERs, especially for support staff and nurses, said Penney. Heywood Healthcare has been strug- gling to recruit workers for its emer- gency departments at Athol Hospital and Heywood Hospital in Gardner. "ey're leaving emergency depart- ments, the nurses who have been there for years. Even if they're not leaving health care, they're leaving emergency departments because of how stressful that work has become," she said. Heightened security In the summer of 2023, a patient stabbed a nurse in the neck at Hey- wood Hospital while being treated in the emergency department. In direct response to the attack, Pen- ney oversaw the system as it installed metal detectors, implemented the use of metal detector wands, and hired 10 new security guards to help ensure the safety of its hospital workers. "Having the policy of not allowing the weapons has definitely decreased the prevalence of serious injury, and just seeing the amount of weapons that were confiscated when we first launched that program, [it was] kind of an awakening moment," said Penney. ese operations present a sharp contrast to Wilson's early days as a nurse at the now-closed Worcester City Hospital in the 70s. At the time, the hospital had only one guard who would walk around its buildings at night. "You never had security. You never needed it," she said. e Heywood and Athol hospitals have code of conduct signage through- out their different departments, as do those at UMass Memorial Medical Center. UMMC has implemented the Dy- namic Appraisal of Situational Aggres- sion assessment tool: a seven-item risk assessment providers use during their observations to determine a patient's risk of violence within the next 24 hours. e DASA assessment is typically used with behavioral health patients, but UMass decided to deploy the tool for all patients. "What that does is it gives our caregivers the ability to sort of have a predictive tool of somebody who may be showing aggression within the next 24 hours, so that then proactively, they can put different measures in place." e hospital has additionally im- plemented caregiver safety training, including those teaching deescalation methods and physical protection tech- niques to prevent injury. While training can help to a certain extent, Wilson said the burden of protecting hospital workers can't fall on those workers themselves. ey're there to treat patients, not to fight off assaults and abuse. Penney said it's the same for individ- ual hospitals and healthcare systems. "e hospitals are doing everything they can, everything we can. I think everybody who works in the hospital understands how critical this issue is," said Penney. "is cannot be just another thing the hospitals absorb and take care of on their own." ere needs to be a more organized approach to support hospitals, she said. An example of that are the bills being pushed forward by three of the state's anchor healthcare organizations. Putting it in writing e House and Senate bills, named "An Act requiring health care employers to develop and implement programs to prevent workplace violence", aim to require healthcare employers to create and implement programs to prevent workplace violence while offering protections for employees who be- come victims of violence or assault and battery. e bills include penalties for non-compliant hospitals. In addition to monitoring hospital compliance, the pieces of legislation would allow for assaults against a healthcare worker to be elevated to felo- ny charges with up to a five-year prison sentence and fines up to $5,000. MHA members have been asking for felony-level charges for years, said Emily Dulong, MHA vice president, government advocacy & public policy. "By having this in the bill … it's the multi-pronged piece that assists in whatever work that folks are going to be doing, or are already doing on the ground," she said. "is also adds a little bit of teeth to those." Knowing workplace violence and ha- rassment can at times be nuanced when mental and behavioral health factors are at play, MHA is working to ensure those needing treatment for those conditions or those with cognitive diagnoses are not unduly punished through the bills. e MHA has been working with the state's Office of Health Equity and Com- munity Engagement to address issues occurring because of language barriers or cultural differences. "We want to make sure that folks don't use implicit bias or any sort of uninten- tional personal views that make their workplace vi- olence prevention plans discrimina- tory in any way, shape, or form," said Dulong. While a felony charge clearly won't stop all as- saults and abuses, Wilson and others in the field believe it will make people think twice before acting violently or hurling insults. Not only does Wilson see these bills protecting workers, she sees them as gateways to better care. "We need healthcare workers, es- pecially ER nurses," she said. "ey're like the front line of the army. ey're just gonna be out there to save you, and they can't do their job if they're threatened." Assault against a healthcare worker should be a felony Three Massachusetts associations have come together to try to pass a bill to make intentional assault and battery against a healthcare worker a felony, as the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association reports a hospital care worker in the state is abused every 36 minutes. When polled online, more than 9 out of 10 WBJ readers said Massachusetts should make these assaults a felony-level crime. Do you support the effort to raise the charges to the felony level for anyone found guilty of assaulting a healthcare worker? Yes 95% No 5% Reader comments: "Assault can mean as little as threatening to cause harm or inflict fear. People in a healthcare environment are often there due to injury or trauma and may be more aggressive than normal. If they do not physically harm the worker, I am not sure being charged with a felony is appropriate." - Michael Topalian "I am curious who would vote 'no' on this." - Anonymous Heatlhcare violence Frequency of abusive incidences at Massachusetts healthcare organizations including physical assaults, verbal abuse, or threats Year Frequency 2020 Every 57 minutes 2021 Every 49 minutes 2022 Every 38 minutes 2025 Every 36 minutes % of total Leading incidents incidents Completed physical assault 44% Verbal abuse 23% Threat of harm 20% Attempted physical assault, no contact 13% Victims of % of total violent incients incidents Nurse 38% Security officer 27% Aide/tech/other clinician 19% Patient 4% Other non-clinical emplyee 4% Physician 3% Visition/companion/other 6% Sources: Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association, MHA's January 2023 report: "Violence in Massachusets Healthcare Faciliites: A Call to Action" Emily Dulong, MHA vice president, government advocacy & public policy While she was a nurse at Harrington Hospital in 2017, Elise Wilson was attacked by a previous patient of the emergency room, who said he purposefully come back to the hospital to harm a worker. W PHOTO | COURTESY OF ELISE WILSON

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