Oklahoma prosecutors hear about violence against health care workers

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OKLAHOMA CITY – Hospitals have seen a significant increase in violence against health care workers, prosecutors were told Thursday.

“It is kind of getting to a tipping point,” said Maggie Martin, Oklahoma Hospital Association chief legal officer.

Her remarks were made to those attending the District Attorneys Council meeting in Oklahoma City.

Over the years, there has been a 63% increase in violence against health care workers, Martin said.

About every hour, two nurses are assaulted in a hospital, Martin said.

Assault and battery against a health care worker remains a felony, she said.

While hospitals can remove someone who is a credible threat, they still have to allow access to emergency rooms, she said.

“That is where a number of incidents occur,” Martin said.

Bennett Geister, president of OKC Communities – Mercy, described a recent incident where a family member gave alcohol to a hospital patient who then assaulted staff and did widespread room and equipment damage. The patient had to be sedated, he said.

“The highest compliance we have with employees pressing charges is in the emergency room,” Geister said. “They are the most used to it. They see it the most.”

Smaller rural facilities don’t have their own security or the resources to handle the violence, he said.

Hospitals put together detailed reports on what happened in an effort to prevent it in the future, he said.

“It sure sounds like you have a great amount of information, but that information doesn’t ever make it into a law enforcement report,” said Steve Kunzweiler, Tulsa County district attorney.

Kunzweiler said the information is critical to prosecutors when they are trying to evaluate the strength of a case.

He questioned how prosecutors could get better access to that information because they are not getting it through ordinary channels.

“There is a big difference between a hospital attorney and an attorney representing a doctor,” he said.

Kunzweiler said would rather go to the doctor’s attorney instead of the hospital attorney to gain access to a witness because hospitals are concerned about insulating themselves from liability.

Tammy Powell is president of SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital – Oklahoma City.

“We’ve had employees that have been paralyzed,” she said. “We have an employee right now with a fractured back.”

Greg Mashburn, the district attorney for Cleveland, Garvin and McClain counties, said his office gets a lot of push back from the Norman hospital when his employees try to get information, which makes it difficult to prosecute the cases.

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