![]()
January 14, 2020
The Honorable Tammy Baldwin
nited States Senate
ashington, DC 20510
Re: S. 851, Workplace Violence Prevention
for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act
Dear Senator Baldwin:
On behalf of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM), I am writing in support of your legislation, S. 851, Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act.
ACOEM is a national medical society representing over 4,000 occupational medicine physicians and other health care professionals devoted to preventing and managing occupational injuries.
Many of our members practice in medical centers and have first-hand experience with workplace violence where they practice. Physicians and other health care professionals are very alarmed with the high rates of serious injury due to workplace violence within the health care professions. Workers in healthcare, and social service, settings are at the highest risk of violence on the job because of their direct contact with patients and client care, experiencing the highest rate of serious injury due to workplace violence at a rate of 13.7 per 10,000 workers, compared with 2.9 for all workers.
ACOEM supports directing OSHA to establish a standard requiring health care and social service employers to write and implement a workplace violence prevention plan to prevent and protect employees from violent incidents in the workplace. An enforceable OSHA standard is needed to prevent foreseeable, serious and life-altering violence against workers in hospitals, medical clinics, nursing homes, and social service settings.
We cannot turn a blind eye to the heightened risk of workplace violence physicians, nurses and other health professionals face on a day-to-day basis. Congress should seize this opportunity to help encourage workplaces to adopt proven prevention techniques to prepare them for responding to violent incidents.
Thank you for your leadership on this important issue. Please do not hesitate to contact Patrick O’Connor, ACOEM’s Director of Government Affairs, at 703-351-6222, with any questions.
Sincerely,
Stephen A. Frangos, MD, MPH, FACOEM
ACOEM President