Governor signs bill to protect health care workers
Citing a sharp increase in the number of assaults on health care workers in recent years, Gov. Peter Shumlin today signed a bill that would make such assaults a crime with stiffer penalties. The Governor signed the bill outside the Emergency Room at the Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin, where health care workers requested the change following numerous assaultive incidents. ‘This bill will help us protect the medical personnel who, along with our law enforcement and firefighters, work to keep us safe and protected,’ the Governor said, shortly before signing the bill into law. The number of workplace assaults occurring in the health care industry is four times higher than in the private sector, advocates said. At the Central Vermont Medical Center, the number of incidents has jumped 100 percent in five years. In one case, for example, a nurse had his arm broken by someone visiting the Emergency Room; in another, a patient tried to bite an emergency room nurse, who was then attacked by the patient’s family member. Medical Center CEO Judy Tarr and hospital medical staff also joined the bill signing.The new law adds health care workers to assault laws already protecting law enforcement and firefighters. A person convicted of simple or aggravated assault against a nurse or other health care worker while on duty will face fines and imprisonment for not more than one year and up 10 years for repeat offenses. The court will take into account whether the defendant was a patient at the time and had a psychiatric illness, which might have exacerbated the situation. Source: Governor’s office. 5.12.2011