On June 2, 2022, two nurses and a doctor working at Encino Hospital Medical Center (EHMC) were attacked by an agitated, knife wielding patient. Chaos ensued—parts of the hospital were evacuated while the police engaged in an hours-long stand-off with the attacker inside the hospital, forcing the temporary closure of the Emergency Room.

The incident, which occurred just days after a shooting at a hospital in Tulsa Oklahoma, made national headlines, and contributed to a wave of growing public awareness of the threats that hospital workers face on a daily basis.

At (EHMC), nurses had warned management for years that something like this would happen. They said that lax security, insufficient workplace violence plans, and management’s refusal to install metal detectors was a recipe for disaster. On that day, their fears came true.

A bill introduced this year in the state legislature aims to improve security in hospitals, so that a tragic event like the attack at (EHMC) will not happen again. AB 2975, the “Secure Hospitals for All” bill authored by Assemblymember Mike Gipson (AD-65) is our union’s legislative priority for 2024.

The bill will require hospitals to install metal detectors at the main entrance, the ER entrance, and Labor and Delivery, staffed at all times by a trained security officer. It also mandates that hospitals use security guards, not healthcare workers, to inspect patients’ belongings. These measures won’t solve the crisis of hospital workplace violence alone, but they will reduce the threat of violence involving weapons and make hospitals safer places for patients to heal.

We will need your help to ensure that this important bill passes in the legislature. Text SECURE4ALL to 787-753 to sign up for alerts.

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