🔒Amid rising rates of violence, UMass Memorial ER nurses union demands new safety plan by Jan. 1

In response to mounting rates of violence to hospital workers, all nurses of UMass Memorial Medical Center’s University Campus signed and delivered a petition to the Worcester hospital’s senior leadership on Monday, demanding they plan for new safety initiatives by Jan. 1. “For over three years the MNA has been advocating for safety improvements in the Emergency Department on the University Campus,” reads the petition. “As the uptick in violence at health care facilities continues to rise, we the undersigned can no longer stand by and see the Hospital spend millions on new capital projects like standalone EDs, upgrades to community hospitals, and new ventures with Shields while our safety concerns get ignored,” said the petition. Addressed to UMMC President Justin Precourt and Ken Shanahan, senior director of emergency medicine and behavioral health, the petition was signed by 70 ER nurses, representing the entirety of the unit’s nurses, Jennifer Johnson, associate director of media relations for the Massachusetts Nurses Association labor union which represent the nurses, said to WBJ in an email. Currently, there are security and metal detectors that patients go through once they are admitted into the emergency department, but they aren’t in the waiting rooms, Lyn Flagg, a nurse at UMMC’s ER, told WBJ. The nurses are asking to add security and metal detectors to the waiting room, in addition to police officers, so that all patients and visitors are screened prior to entering, and for the installation of bulletproof glass at triage in order to protect those workers. “We do have people that get very aggressive in the waiting room, especially when the waits are long,” said Flagg. “Personally, I've even been threatened before by a patient saying he was going to kill me.” “As the uptick in violence at health care facilities continues to rise, we the undersigned can no longer stand by and see the Hospital spend millions on new capital projects like standalone EDs, upgrades to community hospitals, and new ventures with Shields while our safety concerns get ignored,” said the petition. Now, the petition is demanding the hospital deliver a safety plan, including the MNA’s suggestions, by Jan. 1. If not, the union says it will reassess how it attempts to obtain the safety changes. This means considering moving forward with public actions, social media campaigns, and reaching out to legislators, Johnson said. UMass Memorial Health said it is committed to building and maintaining a safe work environment for caregiver “These steps include implementation of metal detection, armed police officers at Memorial and University campuses, a Behavioral Emergency Response Team that intervenes with escalating pediatric patients, a visitor screening process, DASA (Dynamic Appraisal of Situational Aggression) screening to predict a patient's risk of aggression, a patient watch program to provide dedicated security for patients with escalating behavior, and ongoing active shooter training for campus police,” said a statement from UMass Memorial, provided to WBJ by Shelly Hazlett, the system’s media and public relations director. UMass Memorial also states it has provided Awareness, Vigilance, Avoidance, Defense, Escape training to all staff and has enforced a patient and family code of conduct policy. Still, MNA nurses said they have brought their specific solutions to the hospital’s senior leadership for the past three years, according to the petition, and representatives have been told the improvements would be included in the capital budget, but ultimately were abandoned. “We remain dedicated to continuing to work collaboratively with our frontline caregivers to develop additional safety solutions that support their needs,” UMass Memorial said. Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.