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Massachusetts considers bill to address hospital violence

Healthcare Security Weekly, June 18, 2007

Massachusetts lawmakers this week are scheduled to hear testimony on a bill that would require all hospitals to do an annual violence risk assessment, reported The Boston Herald. That action adds Massachusetts to the growing list of states that have either enacted such a law or have a proposal pending.

The Herald said nurses are increasingly on the receiving end of workplace violence and becoming "human punching bags" at the hands of unruly patients. The concern has prompted prosecutors, police, and frontline caregivers to call for increased security inside hospitals.

Fifty percent of nurses reported bring punched at least once in the previous two years, according to a 2004 survey by the Massachusetts Nurses Association. Another Massachusetts bill would expand a law that makes it a crime to assault an ambulance driver or EMT to include nurses, the newspaper reported.

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