A nurse-backed legislative push to stiffen criminal penalties for people who assault hospital workers in Oregon is advancing. But emergency room physicians who endorsed earlier bills say the new version is too weak.
The nurse-doctor divide has its roots in an issue that has taken on growing importance for hospital workers: the right to do their jobs without being attacked.
“Assaults on health care workers have escalated during the pandemic and have reached a crisis point,” Dr. Christian Smith, president of the Oregon Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, told lawmakers in written testimony, arguing Senate Bill 170 doesn’t go far enough. “Health care workers demand and deserve legislation to protect them now more than ever.”
But lawmakers and others “have made it clear there isn’t a political appetite” for the earlier concept doctors had supported, Kevin Mealy, spokesperson for the Oregon Nurses Association, told The Lund Report in an email.
For years, a coalition of professional associations, hospital providers and health systems has sought an increase in penalties for assaulting hospital workers, citing a surge in workplace violence and threats.
“I don’t want to see every session we have someone new. So let's see if we can’t come around with something that’s more holistic.”
Past versions of the bill made assaulting a hospital worker a felony, similar to laws in more than 30 other states, including California and Washington. Oregon law already treats attacks on taxi and bus and drivers, highway flaggers and emergency medical crew members the same way.
But in four previous legislative sessions those earlier bills died due to concerns that they would further criminalize mental illness. Opponents said people in crisis or with disabilities would face life-altering criminal charges.
Currently, it’s a class A misdemeanor to assault or injure a hospital worker, which is punishable by up to 364 days in jail. The earlier bills made it a Class C felony to assault hospital workers who are doing their jobs, subject to up to five years in prison.
SB 170 would create felony charges for assaulting any worker in their places of employment — not just those working in hospitals. However, the charges would apply only if an assailant has at least two previous convictions for similar attacks.
The bill is a committee bill, so it doesn’t have a chief sponsor.
“If I’m injured, my staff now has to attend to me. And that means everybody else has to wait.”
State Sen. Floyd Prozanski, a Eugene Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, told The Lund Report that the bill would leave it up to prosecutors whether to charge defendants for a felony.
The new bill is “not as satisfying for many health care workers,” state Rep. Travis Nelson, D-Portland, told The Lund Report. But, he added, “I am hoping that it will give health care providers more comfort than what they’ve had in the past.”
Nelson, a registered nurse, was the lead cosponsor of the bill last year that doctors supported. He said he supports SB 170 as an appropriate compromise. He noted that in response to concerns about criminalizing mental illness, Washington’s Legislature is considering rolling back part of its law that allows prosecutors to bring felony charges against people who assault health care workers.
However, the new bill sets “such a high bar that only the rarest of cases would face consequences,” argued the emergency room physicians leader, Smith, in his opposition testimony.
Health care workers continue to face violence
Violence against health care workers was on the rise already, and then the pandemic happened. Health care and social service workers accounted for 73% of nonfatal workplace injuries that required them to miss work for 2021 and 2022, according to federal figures.
According to the nurses union, a survey sent to its members late last year found that 92% of its members experienced workplace violence in the previous 12 months.
The problem has gotten so bad that last year the American Hospital Association and the FBI released resources for hospitals on how to respond to violence in health care.
In Oregon, a visitor at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital two years ago fatally shot security guard Bobby Smallwood and injured another employee.
Many nurses and doctors in Oregon feel lasting effects after they’ve recovered physically. Melissa Pfleiger, a registered nurse who works at Legacy Silverton Medical Center, is one of them. “Once you’ve been assaulted, you’re traumatized,” she said, speaking as a member of the union and not for the hospital. She added that she won’t go into dark rooms like the one where she was assaulted.
About seven years ago, one of her patients was “yelling and causing a commotion.” she said. When she went to check, the patient yelled profanities, stood up from the bed and punched her in the face. The assault, she said, fractured the orbit of her eye and left her vision blurry for a couple of years.
Pfleiger said patients have become more frustrated in part because of longer hospital wait times, which she thinks helps fuel some of the violence.
The assaults just add to the delays, she said. “If I’m injured, my staff now has to attend to me,” she said. “And that means everybody else has to wait.”
Senator seeks ‘holistic’ approach
Prozanski said he’s heard from health care workers and others who want special penalties for people who assault them. Instead, he said he wants more “uniformity and consistency” which is why the bill applies to all assaults on workers, not just those in health care.
“I don’t want to see every session we have someone new,” he said. “So let's see if we can’t come around with something that’s more holistic.”
His bill has drawn less support from industry groups, but also less opposition from advocates for people with disabilities and mental illness.
“I am hoping that it will give health care providers more comfort than what they’ve had in the past.”
State Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, a Corvallis Democrat and advocate for people with disabilities, opposed the earlier bills making assaults on health care workers a felony. A member of the Judiciary Committee, she voted in favor of Prozanski’ bill.
Disability Rights Oregon, which also opposed making it a felony to assault hospital workers, is neutral on SB 170, according to a spokesperson.
Paige Spence, the nurses union’s lobbyist, said in written testimony that its members would like to “see the penalty for assaulting a healthcare worker increased to a felony upon a severe first offense when appropriate.”
She added, “however we appreciate the step forward that this bill takes.”
Separate bill would require hospitals to do more
The nurses association is also supporting Senate Bill 537, which would require hospitals to offer more support to employees who are assaulted and to report data on workplace violence. The bill is scheduled for a hearing Thursday.
It would require hospitals, as well as home health and hospice agencies, to periodically assess the frequency of incidents of violence, including near-miss incidents.
Employers would also have to analyze the root cause of workplace violence and develop a plan to address causes. Following assaults, employers would have to make sure workers are offered medical care and trauma counseling.
Pfleiger, the nurse, said the first question typically on incident reports is what they could have done to prevent the incident, which she said implies the worker is to blame for being assaulted. The bill’s requirements, she said, would change the tone toward workers.
Additionally, the bill would also require health care employers to report additional data to the state on assaults. The data would help identify trends and help lawmakers write future legislation, according to the nurses union.
The Hospital Association of Oregon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"The first question typically on incident reports is what they could have done to prevent the incident, which she said implies the worker is to blame for being assaulted. The bill’s requirements, she said, would change the tone toward workers." My daughter, an intake worker at Good Sam was attacked, slugged, and tossed to the floor because the hospital had a non-lockable gate into her work area from the public area. That man was on probation for assault and was released from jail on her assault that same night. I think, years later, that public gate's still not locked. G S Hospital has been remiss in worker security in the past and many workers suffered from it. They are reactive, not proactive and our families are unsafe because of this. The hospital security staff hang out in their break rooms on each floor. The only place that a patient can feel remotely secure is at the 2 hospital entrances. The Portland legal system seldom responds in a timely manner. They do not follow up on the situations, and the DA and jails let the repeat aggressors out and then have put out new warrants for no shows over and over.