New Resources to Protect Hospital Teams from Violence

October 25, 2024

The American Hospital Association (AHA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) this week launched a new effort to help mitigate targeted violence in health care settings.

This new collaboration from the AHA and the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit promotes violence prevention strategies and “address the escalating threats and acts of targeted violence against health care facilities and the workforce.”

Among the available resources:

• Web page:  Mitigating Targeted Violence in Health Care Settings
• Issue brief:  Threat Assessment and Threat Management
• FBI guide:  Making Prevention a Reality: Identifying, Assessing, and Managing the Threat of Targeted Attacks
• Podcast:  FBI Violence Prevention Strategies to Assess and Manage Threats Against Health Care

HAP and Pennsylvania hospitals are focused on policies and legislation that protect the health and safety of the health care workforce. In Pennsylvania, HAP supported state reforms enacted during 2020 that made it a felony to assault a health care worker and protected health care workers’ identities by allowing their last names to be omitted from ID badges. 

Nationally, HAP also supports the SAVE Act, which would make assaulting a health care worker a federal crime and provide grants to help hospitals improve safety. The bill is modeled after federal protections for airline workers. The legislation is supported by 11 members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation.

For questions about the SAVE Act or other federal initiatives, contact John Myers, vice president, federal advocacy.