Here and across Vermont, violence against healthcare workers a pressing concern
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For the past three months, signs greeting visitors to Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington have made plain that verbal and physical abuse of healthcare workers will not be tolerated.
Despite that policy and numerous other steps to protect employees and secure the hospital campus — at SVMC and healthcare facilities across the state – violent and threatening behavior directed at doctors, nurses and staff has continued.
“Despite these steps, in the past year, 61 percent of our clinical staff have reported physically aggressive behavior towards them,” SVMC President Tom Dee told the state Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year. “In 2022, we had 183 workplace violence events (that were reported) and we are on track to go beyond that number this year.”