Duke Health amps up security measures in wake of attack on hospital staff in Raleigh
Duke Health is ramping up hospital security in response to a rise in attacks on its employees, the most recent of which occurred on Thursday morning.
Police arrested a patient, Stanley Scarboro, at Duke Raleigh Hospital early Thursday after he allegedly punched an emergency room nurse in the face, knocking her unconscious and breaking her nose and eye socket, according to police documents.
He is also accused of breaking a security guard’s finger and threatening several more people in the emergency room, the report read.
Scarboro is being held on a $30,000 bond at Wake County Detention Center for two charges of aggravated assault and one charge of communicated threats.
This is at least the second time this year that Duke Health staff members have faced violent attacks.
In January, a patient at Duke University Hospital in Durham grabbed a police officer’s gun during a struggle and fired multiple shots in the emergency room before being shot by another Duke police officer.
In response to these attacks, some locations, including the Raleigh hospital, have stationed more security guards in the emergency room, closed off some entrances to the public, and made calling for help in an emergency easier for staff, said Dr. Craig Albanese, executive vice president and COO of Duke University Health System.
Duke Health officials are in the process of analyzing data to see how many attacks have occurred at their locations.
“We are monitoring this data closely and looking at the entire spectrum of incidents — from uncivil behavior and verbal threats to physical violence,” officials said in a statement.
Growing attacks in health care
Thursday’s attack is just the latest incident in a slew of physical attacks on health care providers across the state and country.
Dennis Taylor, an acute care nurse practitioner for Atrium Health and immediate past president of the NC Nurses Association, said reports of assaults against nurses have been rising for the past 10 years.
“Almost every day, certainly every week, we hear not only of verbal abuse of nursing staff, but also physical abuse,” he said.
Two health care workers were injured in January at a Novant Health hospital in Wilmington after a man allegedly choked one employee, rendering them unconscious, and attempted to snap the neck of another employee.
Taylor said he thinks the rise is due to a shortage of staff and a surge in COVID-19 patients.
“You have now people sitting in waiting rooms who feel like they should be taken back relatively quickly,” he said. “That created a lot of anxiety and anger among the patients.”
Albanese said he thinks the rise in attacks is a symptom of a larger trend toward violence in the country.
“It’s just unfortunately growing incivility in our country and it’s just hitting every nook and cranny,” he told the N&O.
But there are also factors that make hospital staff particularly vulnerable to this type of incident, he said.
Hospitals are on the front lines of the behavioral health crisis, which has been made markedly worse by the pandemic. Though attacks have happened in all parts of Duke’s hospitals, emergency room and behavioral health units have been impacted the most, he said.
He said a growing distrust in the medical establishment brought on by pandemic misinformation could also be contributing to the problem.
Several of the state’s largest health care providers have invested in training their staff to handle the growing number of attacks.
UNC Health recently created a task force focused on preventing workplace violence and providing support for staff who experienced abuse and violence.
Alan Wolf, a spokesperson for the system, said they are providing more training to teach staff how to recognize and react to potential security issues.
“UNC Health is acutely aware that recent incidents of violence targeting hospital staff across the country are causing more anxiety and trauma among our teammates,” Wolf said. “Violence in hospitals is a serious issue — and one that’s getting worse.”
WakeMed has also established an Incident Review Committee that meets weekly to review any incidents.
North Carolina passed a bipartisan bill in 2015 that made it a felony to assault hospital personnel and licensed health care providers. Taylor said many healthcare providers feel this law is not being sufficiently enforced.
“Now, it’s seen more as a joke because a lot of the district attorneys and magistrates are not pursuing criminal charges against patients,” he said.
Hospital groups across the country are advocating for a federal law that would afford health care workers similar protections to those that exist for flight attendants.
Starting next week, Duke Health will hang orange signs at the entrances of its hospitals, warning patients that aggressive behavior could result in their removal from the facility or prosecution.
“We have a zero tolerance attitude toward this,” Albanese said. “As it becomes clear that there is a persistent risk, we have to persistently decrease that risk.”
Teddy Rosenbluth covers science for The News & Observer in a position funded by Duke Health and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
This story was originally published July 29, 2022 at 1:59 PM.
