Kootenai Medical Center says worker attacks rising

BOISE – Kootenai Medical Center says its workers are being violently assaulted more frequently – to the point that the Coeur d’Alene hospital wants to make any attack on a health care worker in Idaho a felony.

“We’ve seen an increasing number of individuals who come in through the emergency room who are exhibiting very violent behavior,” David Lehman, lobbyist for Kootenai Medical, told the House Judiciary Committee on Monday. Many are seeking prescription drugs, he said.

But legislation to make any assault or battery against an Idaho health care worker a felony carrying a 25-year prison term was rejected on a tied vote by the judiciary committee.

“There are tools on the books. I’m not convinced they’re being used,” said state Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise.

State Rep. Luke Malek, R-Coeur d’Alene, the bill’s sponsor, was disappointed. “I guess we’ll try and bring it back again next year,” he said.

Under current law, such attacks are misdemeanors carrying up to six months in jail and up to a $1,000 fine. But Luker noted that the worst attacks could be charged as aggravated assaults, which are felonies with sentences of up to five years in prison.

Malek told the committee, “In just the past few months, at Kootenai Medical Center in my district, an NICU employee was lifted and thrown to the ground, a … nurse’s aide was kicked in the chest, a security guard was kicked in the groin, a mental health specialist was threatened with a fire extinguisher. Providers and staff have been spit on, bitten and threatened with fists and knives. These examples represent just a small fraction of the incidents in Idaho over the past year.”

Malek said health care workers are obligated to treat everyone, so they’re vulnerable to violent patients. His bill was backed by the Idaho Hospital Association, the Idaho Medical Association and Nurse Leaders of Idaho.

Steve Millard, president of the Idaho Hospital Association, told the committee he heard about a physician who delivered bad news to a family, “and he was punched in the face. … Why should a health care worker be subject to that … kind of abuse?”

Lehman said 90 percent of assaults on workers at Kootenai Medical are reported to police, but the Coeur d’Alene hospital doesn’t track how many result in charges or convictions.