Nurses rallied outside Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center on Friday to support a state bill designed to make hospitals safer.
Assembly Bill 2975 would require hospitals to “adopt a workplace violence prevention plan as a part of its injury and illness prevention plan to protect health care workers and other facility personnel from aggressive and violent behavior.” If passed, the bill would require hospitals in California to install metal detectors and have trained security officers to check people's belongings.
It would also require hospitals to document and retain “any written record of any violent incident against a hospital employee” for five years.
Gloria Mateo, a nurse at Encino Hospital, said the safety concerns make it hard for the other nurses to do their jobs.
“Sometimes you have to be the nurse, you have to be the security guard and you have to be the one that is controlling the situation,” she said.
Guillermo Mendoza-Luwan, a nurse at Pomona Valley Hospital, told KNX News’ Karen Adams that he fears for his safety when he goes to work.
“We're being taken away from being able to provide patient quality care at bedside where we're having to go through patient belongings and sometimes we don't know what's in those bags,” he said. “There could be weapons, there could be guns.”
He added he’d like to see hospitals make safety a priority.
“I would like for hospitals to be able to provide metal detectors that are manned at all times with trained security guards as well as trained security guards on how to properly go through patient belongings,” he said. “So this way we're not taken away from being able to provide quality care to our patients.”
The bill is now in the State Senate.
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