Petition urges health systems to boost security after attacks
Nurses and hospital workers, along with SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, have launched a petition calling on Pennsylvania health care systems to invest in staff safety and security measures following the violent Nov. 7 attack of an emergency room nurse at UPMC Altoona by a patient.
Travis Dunn, who was attacked by a patient, suffered multiple injuries, including a cracked skull and a brain bleed. He was flown to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh.
“No health-care worker should ever fear for their life while caring for others,” SEIU Healthcare, the state’s largest health care union, said in an open letter.
The assault at UPMC Altoona comes on the heels of the deadly shooting at UPMC Memorial in York earlier this year, in which a police officer was killed and seven others were injured.
The petition is being distributed by SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, and will then be sent to health systems executives and elected officials.
“Workplace violence is not ‘part of the job.’ It’s a crisis,” the petition states. “Every single health system in Pennsylvania must rise to the occasion and in particular we are calling on UPMC, as our largest health system with the most resources, to lead the way in setting standards.”
The petition calls for health-care systems to adopt and enforce comprehensive violence prevention plans, ensure safe staffing levels so that workers are not left alone in dangerous situations, require de-escalation training for every employee, and take other measures to keep nurses and staff safe.
Dr. Donald Yealy, UPMC’s Chief Medical Officer, said the health system is committed to the safety of employees and patients, and improving safety measures is a priority.
“We don’t have any tolerance for this. We believe everyone who comes to get health care and delivers health care needs to be safe and deserves to be safe,” said Yealy. “We’ve been invested in this, and we have a multidisciplinary group that uses health-care experts, local and national security experts, and feedback from our workers to make sure we’re always adapting to threats today and what they might be in the future. We’ve made hundreds of advancements and safety upgrades and we will continue to do that.”
Yealy said the health system also has implemented security features specific to its hospital sites across the commonwealth.
“We will do everything we can to prevent and respond to violence, and to make sure our employees are supported throughout,” he said.
Bradley Lloyd, the man charged with Dunn’s attack, is facing numerous charges, including felony accounts of aggravated assault.