New state law aims to protect health care workers from workplace violence
(WAVY) — A new bill taking effect this summer aims to prevent workplace violence against healthcare workers.
There have been several incidents over the years of patients acting aggressively towards people who are there to provide help. This new law would give them a helping hand.
Sentara Health is actually ahead of the game, having implemented several procedures back in 2022 to guard against workplace violence, or even prevent it.
'It's something that our staff deal with almost on a daily basis,' said Stephen Hollowell, senior director of systemwide security at Sentara Health.
The new state law is needed, Hollowell said. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states healthcare workers are five times more likely to be injured in workplace violence than those in any other sector — '[people] who get assaulted, punched, bitten, kicked. We're dealing, a lot of times with people at their lowest point and we have some tremendous, dedicated staff here,' Hollowell said. 'And the irony is, they're the ones that get assaulted.'
Senate Bill 1260 states hospitals in the Commonwealth shall establish a workplace violence incident reporting system, record all incidents and adopt a policy that prohibits anyone from discriminating or retaliating against employees who report the incidents.
'We're having our officers trained to carry and utilize tasers where appropriate,' Hollowell said.
They've also implemented a line of questioning to see if a subject displays signs of aggression. And they also have new hardware.
'By the end of this month, … 16 of our 17 [emergency departments] will have weapons detection systems,' Hollowell said.
He says it's unfortunate legislative action has been needed to combat the violence.
'Unfortunately, given the level of violence we've seen in this country, it's a necessary way of moving forward,' Hollowell said.
He said the state needs to take the next step and make any violence against healthcare workers a felony in the eyes of the law. Georgia passed a bill in 2023 that did just that.
Virginia's law will take effect July 1.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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