Northern Arizona VA Healthcare System Failed to Protect Workers from Patient Violence
A VA medical center in Prescott, AZ, has failed to protect its workers from serious and potentially deadly patient violence. This is the second time that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited the VA medical center for exposing its staff to violence in the past 4 years.
The latest OHSA investigation of the Northern Arizona VA Healthcare System’s Bob Stump VA Medical Center was initiated in December 2023 in response to claims that nurses, nursing assistants, and housekeeping staff had been bitten, kicked, struck, punched, slapped, and sexually harassed by unit residents. OSHA’s investigation found the Bob Stump VA Medical Center had failed to protect healthcare workers from violence from unit residents, similar to the findings of a previous investigation in 2019.
Executive Order 12196 requires federal agencies to comply with the same safety and health standards as private-sector employers. They must provide safe working conditions and address potential hazards. In contrast to private sector employers, federal agencies are generally exempt from financial penalties and are instead issued with notices of unsafe and unhealthful working conditions. When issued with those notices, they must demonstrate that they have addressed the identified hazards. According to OSHA, if Bob Stump VA Medical Center had been a private-sector employer, penalties of up to $161, 323 could have been imposed for the safety and health failures.
Workplace violence is on the rise, especially in healthcare. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2018 – the latest data available – healthcare workers accounted for 73 of non-fatal injuries from violence. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that hospital workers fall victim to non-fatal violent workplace assaults at a rate of 8.3 in every 10,000 workers, and the problem is getting worse. 40% of nurses who took part in a National Nurses United survey said there had been an increase in violent incidents in the workplace. Given the high risk of violence, healthcare organizations need to implement safeguards to protect their workers.
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“Healthcare industry workers encounter workplace violence up to four times more often than people employed in private industry,” said OSHA Area Director Zachary Barnett in Phoenix, Arizona. “The failure of the Bob Stump VA Medical Center to prevent the same dangers that existed in 2019 is troubling. The facility’s management must take immediate action to better protect its employees from workplace violence before someone is seriously hurt or even killed in an incident that they could have prevented.”
