I-Team: Violence At Hospitals On The Rise
BOSTON (CBS) - Shootings like the one at Brigham and Women's Hospital are rare, but the I-Team found the numbers of violent attacks in health care settings are on the rise.
A survey by the International Association of Health Care Security and Safety found that assaults in medical facilities went up 37-percent from 2010 to 2013.
There have been a number of attacks in the past few years here in New England.
Just last month, a man killed his wife and then turned the gun on himself at Wentworth Douglas Hospital in Dover, New Hampshire.
Back in 2013, a prisoner being treated at Mass Eye and Ear shot a guard while wrestling for his gun and in 2009, a Mass General psychiatrist was stabbed by a patient.
A study by Johns Hopkins found 25-percent of violent attacks in hospitals involved current or former patients and, like the incident in New Hampshire, 32-percent of the attackers had a relationship with the victim.
The attack at the Brigham involved a gun. Brigham officials say they do not have metal detectors. "As far as I know, there are no metal detectors in any hospitals in the city," a spokesperson said.
But the Johns Hopkins study found metal detectors could reduce the number of hospital shootings by 40-percent.
The hospital would not elaborate on whether Tuesday's shooting would change that policy. "We continue to assess what our risk of threat is and what our safety is," the spokesperson said. She did say that anything was possible.
A study of hospital shootings by the Annals of Emergency Medicine found that 92-percent of the shooters were men and most had a specific target.