H.B. 452, which passed the Ohio House and recently had its second hearing in a Senate committee, aims to address hospital violence and mandate hospitals track incidents of violence.
“Despite your pain, you realize the urgency, your duty to serve and you set aside your own safety, courageously limp back up the stairs to the ED (emergency department), only to discover that a patient you had recently evaluated succumbed to his wounds,” Sontag said. “It’s revealed that during a struggle to disarm the patient, a handgun discharged.”
In the incident Sontag described, the patient was the only one to suffer a severe outcome, but violent incidents were common in a hospital setting, he said.
Injuries in health care and social assistance increased in 2023 over 2022 by 27,800 cases to 471,600 nationally, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
About 91% of emergency physicians said that they, or a colleague, were a victim of violence in the past year, according to a January 2024 poll of American College of Emergency Physicians members.
House Bill 452 would require hospitals to establish a security plan for preventing workplace violence and managing aggressive behaviors, along with a workplace violence incident reporting system. The bill is sponsored by state Rep. Andrea White, R-Kettering, and state Rep. Rachel Baker, D-Cincinnati.
Also testifying before the Ohio Senate Veterans and Public Safety Committee was Ron Smith, father of Tristin Kate Smith, a Dayton nurse who died by suicide on Aug. 7, 2023. Smith, of Oakwood, has continued to advocate for safer working conditions for nurses after finding a letter Tristin had written about strain the nursing profession had on her.
“Her compassion and dedication knew no bounds, but neither did the weight she carried,” Smith said.
H.B. 452 would also require the state to survey colleges and universities to determine if the students seeking to become health care providers have access to education and training on workplace violence prevention and how to manage aggressive behaviors.
Back over in the Ohio House, lawmakers recently held the first committee hearing for House Bill 154, which regards employment conditions for certain registered nurses. It includes requirements for the maximum number of patients a nurse can be responsible for depending on the setting, similar to the requirements outlined in House Bill 285.
“Nurses are on the frontlines every day, providing crucial medical care to numerous patients at once. It is our job as lawmakers to keep our nurses safe and to provide hospitals with the guidelines and tools they need to do just that,” said state Rep. Michael Skindell, D-Lakewood, who is sponsoring the bill with state Rep. Latyna Humphrey, D-Columbus.
Both House Bill 154 and H.B. 285 only include minor differences in the staffing ratios, with House Bill 285 providing the option for one nurse to be responsible for up to six patients in a unit designated as postpartum care, with each mother and infant counted separately, and in a well-baby nursery. H.B. 154 mandates the maximum limit for postpartum care as four patients per nurse with five patients per nurse in a well-baby nursery.
House Bill 154 does not include the Nursing Student Loan-to-Grant Program that is in House Bill 285, under which nursing students may be awarded amounts that do not have to be repaid if a five-year service obligation is completed.
H.B. 154 would require a hospital to post the staffing ratio requirements daily, on a shift-by-shift basis, in a conspicuous place visible to the public. It would also mandate hospitals to provide inpatients with an existing Ohio Department of Health telephone number to report inadequate staffing.
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