CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There's a new effort to curb the rise in violence against health care workers.
Federal data show that health care workers are five times more likely to experience workplace violence, compared to workers in other industries.
It's a concern for lawmakers, who passed legislation to address violence in emergency rooms.
“There are violent confrontations at the ER, and I can tell you that the ER staff, the nurses, and the doctors, are not there for the violence, they’re there to help," Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden said.
These days, there's a growing number of health care workers who say they're under attack and need the law on their side. In a National Nurses United survey, 40% of hospital nurses said they saw an increase in violent incidents in 2022.
Those incidents can come from violent patients, some with mental illness, stress, or under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
“The safety of our nurses and doctors and health care workers at the hospital needs to be our number one priority," Sheriff McFadden said.
Now, a new North Carolina law aims to help address that, by requiring hospitals with emergency departments to have a law enforcement officer on site at all times, unless they get officials to approve an exemption.
“I think what ER staff would love to see are people who are armed, probably 90% of the security personnel at these facilities are not armed,” McFadden said.
Sheriff McFadden believes this may bring comfort and peace to emergency departments, a place he spent a lot of time when he was a homicide detective.
“I can’t tell you many times a medical staff is caring for a person, they find a gun, they find a knife, a magazine falls on the floor, bullets fall on the floor," Sheriff McFadden said. “Sometimes it gets a little violent because people are arriving with a lot of emotions.”
The new requirement is set to take effect in 2025, but McFadden says many logistics need to be worked out.
“We want to make sure that these people are properly trained, properly licensed, and we need to start these conversations now," McFadden said. "It is going to be difficult.”
The legislation also calls for employees to receive violence prevention training and for hospitals to report violent incidents to the state.
Contact Lexi Wilson at lwilson@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.