New Poll Results Show Emergency Physicians Assaulted Frequently

Sarasota, FL (WorkersCompensation.com) – At the end of last month, the AAMC released a statement calling on Congress to pass the Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees (SAVE) Act based on multiple studies and polls indicating a clear increase of violence against healthcare workers. According to the press release, 44 percent of nurses reported having been physically attacked, and 68 percent verbally attacked. Additionally, 23 percent of physicians reported attacks via social media. In August, the ACEP released the results of their poll conducted earlier this year on violence in emergency departments. The results are quite chilling as it appears that direct care healthcare workers are more likely to be injured from an assault than workers in other industries, and the frequency is increasing according to the physicians polled.

Eighty-five percent of emergency physicians feel that the rate of violence in emergency departments has increased over the past 5 years, and 45 percent believes there has been a drastic increase. When asked if they had ever assaulted, 55 percent stated they had been assaulted, up from 47 percent in 2018.

Seventy-nine percent stated they had witnessed an assault, up from 71 percent in 2018. Only 6 percent reported in 2022 that they had not either been assaulted or witnessed an assault, down from 10 percent in 2018.

When asked about the frequency of physical assaults in the emergency department, 24 percent stated they had been assaulted multiple times a week, compared to only 8 percent in 2018. Additionally, 40 percent reported the frequency as once a month, compared to 38 percent in 2018. Among those physicians that reported being assaulted six or more times within the last year, 59 percent stated they were assaulted several times each month, with 36 percent stating the assault was weekly and 4 percent reported the assault as daily.

While verbal assaults with threats of violence were the most common type of assault reported at 64 percent, 40 percent stated they had been hit or slapped, down slightly from 44 percent in 2018. In 2018, 30 percent reported being spit on, 28 percent reported being punched, and 27 percent reported being kicked. As a comparison from 2022, 31 percent stated they had been spit on, 29 percent stated they had punched, and 26 percent stated they had been kicked.

When asked if they had ever missed a shift due to an assault injury, in 2018 only 5 percent stated yes.

However, that percentage has increased to 9 percent for 2022.

When asked about reasons for the assault, physicians reported that psychiatric patients were responsible for around 42 percent of the assaults, and drug seekers were responsible for 40 percent. COVID-19 related frustrations accounted for 5 percent, followed by other reasons at 13 percent. In 2018, 83 percent of physicians reported that a patient had threatened to do them harm but in 2022 that percentage has increased to 85 percent.

When asked about contributing factors, inadequate consequences ranked top of the list for 2022 but came in second in 2018. Behavioral health ranked first in 2018 but came in second in the recent poll. Absence of adequate protection and department crowding remained the same at third and fourth. However, for 2022 emergency department boarding moved up one point, and people seeking opioid prescriptions moved down a point.

When asked about the most important actions hospitals could take to improve safety, increasing staff in the emergency department was seen as more effective than it was in 2018. Increasing security, enforcing clear policies, reporting of incidents to the police, and restricting the areas open to public ranked about the same for 2022.

According to the poll, physicians aren’t the only ones feeling the impact of violence in the workplace as physicians reported that their patient care had been impacted. Some of the most common adverse effects of the violence included loss productivity at 87 percent, anxiety at 85 percent, increased wait times at 85 percent, less focus at 84 percent. Sixty percent cited patients leaving without being seen or treated. In all cases, the percentages were higher than the 2018 poll results.

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