Health care workers report spike in aggressive behavior from patients and visitors

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Punching, biting and kicking are just some examples of the physical assaults happening at our local hospitals. Our health care workers say they've seen a spike in disturbing, aggressive behavior from both patients and visiting family members.

KDKA Investigator Meghan Schiller talked to Allegheny Health Network about how security and staff are working together to find a cure. 

"We don't want people thinking that this is some kind of dangerous, abusive job that they need to come to every day, so we have to try to protect them as much as possible," said Kathy Sikora, the director of emergency services at Allegheny General Hospital.

The security guards inside Pittsburgh's AGH are on the front lines and they're the first phone call for veteran nurse Kathy Sikora.

"It's very challenging for health care workers now to get up in the morning and come to work and know there's a very good chance, at the very least, they're going to get verbally abused throughout the course of their shift," said Sikora.

It's called hospital aggression and it's the opposite of thanking our health care heroes. As director of emergency services, Sikora feels it's out of control. 

"And regardless of the treatment we receive, guess what? We're still going to provide that good care, but it takes its toll on an already challenged health care system," said Sikora.

The violence and verbal abuse sparked a letter from the Western Pennsylvania Regional Chief Medical Officer Consortium, signed by our area's 15 chief medical officers. It essentially asks the public to cut it out and keep peoples' attitudes in check. 

"My background is in the public sector, so when I started here, I was really surprised by the level of violence," said Mike Huss, Highmark Health's head of corporate security and employee safety.

Huss oversees Highmark Health's 500-member security detail. He calls the violence eye-opening but says his team's quick to take action. 

"We do have panic buttons in a lot of our facilities that can easily be activated," said Huss. "We're there to try to make it a much safer environment with them and if someone is acting out in one of our facilities we're going to deal with it, up to even a felony arrest."

Allegheny Health Network recently sent out a wellness survey and learned 89 percent of emergency room resident doctors reported getting threatened and nearly 50 percent of nurses reported getting assaulted.

"We've had multiple staff members kicked, hit, spit on, smacked, just all of those physical things and we have it done by patients and family members," said Sikora.

The violence is sparking a change: added cameras, increased Highmark security and more training. 

"One of the reasons we're going to be working a lot more this year on crisis prevention intervention is to try to see these triggers or see the signs and try to get out in front of it before it actually happens," said Sikora. "Easier said than done a lot of the time, but we're still going to keep trying."

It's not a problem isolated to just the Pittsburgh region, but it's happening nationwide. Data shows COVID didn't help matters, but the trend seems to have started years before the pandemic. 

"Over 70 percent of all non-fatal workplace violent injuries occur in health care, so when you think about that and you think about all the professions out there, that's staggering," said Huss.