Workplace violence continued to be a serious concern for hospitals in 2023.
Most healthcare workers in critical care settings experience on-the-job violence, according to a global survey presented Jan. 21 at the Society of Critical Care Medicine's 2023 Critical Care Congress. Another survey found 53 percent of nurses reported increasing verbal abuse.
Here are 10 incidents of violence at behavioral and psychiatric facilities Becker's has reported in 2023.
- Over 40 nurses at Seattle Children's Hospital urged the hospital to do more to prevent violence in the psychiatry and behavioral medicine unit. The Washington State Nurses Association, which represents the hospital's nurses, said nearly every nurse on the unit signed a letter urging the hospital's administration to have at least three safety officers on the unit during the day, add additional nurse roles, decrease nurse-to-patient ratios and increase pay.
- A former patient is facing a second-degree murder charge for allegedly stabbing a nurse to death at a Hawaii behavioral health hospital. The victim, 29-year-old Justin Bautista, had worked at Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe for many years. The suspect, Tommy Carvalho, 25, was arrested at the hospital and charged on the evening of Nov. 13, according to Honolulu police records.
- Current and former employees accused Midvale, Utah-based Highland Ridge Hospital of allowing assaults on patients and pressuring staff not to report them to police. Police have responded to more than 100 assault cases at the Acadia-healthcare owned hospital since 2019. Of those, 17 were documented sexual assaults and 31 were documented physical assaults.
- Police opened a homicide investigation into the death of a nurse who was attacked by a patient at East Tennessee (Knoxville) Behavioral Health Center in September.
- Authorities are investigating a shooting at Concord-based New Hampshire State Hospital that left two people dead Nov. 17. The suspect allegedly entered the state-run psychiatric hospital's lobby and shot one individual. A state trooper, on duty at the hospital, promptly engaged and fatally shot the suspect.
- A patient accused of attacking and permanently blinding his roommate at South Florida State Hospital was charged with aggravated battery. Police responded to a call at the Pembroke Pines, Fla.-based psychiatric hospital Sept. 2 regarding two patients whose verbal argument had turned physical. Both patients were at the hospital for a court-ordered stay.
- A nurse at Rhode Island (Providence) Hospital was in critical condition after he was assaulted by a patient in the psychiatric department.
- In August, a patient escaped Eastern Shore Hospital Center, a Cambridge, Md.-based psychiatric hospital, after an accomplice shot out the window and drove them away.
- Bartlett Regional Hospital, based in Juneau, Alaska, faced a staffing shortage, resulting in "inhumane treatment" of behavioral health patients. The inadequate staffing level left the hospital ill-equipped to handle patients' violent outbursts and other problems, putting patients and staff "in harm's way," a physician and board member at the hospital told Juneau Empire.
- Three former employees of Central State Hospital in Petersburg, Va., were charged with second-degree murder in a patient's death, along with seven law enforcement deputies.