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Violence in the emergency department is unacceptable. ACEP is working to strengthen protections for physicians, care teams and patients by increasing public awareness, advocating for policy changes and developing resources to help professionals mitigate and respond to these incidents.
ACEP has talked to legislators as part of its Leadership and Advocacy Conference to ensure that violence against emergency physicians and care teams is not accepted as "just part of the job."
According to a January 2024 poll of ACEP members, 91% of emergency physicians said that they, or a colleague, were a victim of violence in the past year. In a 2022 ACEP survey, 85% of emergency physicians said they believe the rate of violence experienced in emergency departments has increased over the past five years.
Attacks on frontline health care workers are becoming more frequent and emergency physicians are leading the call for real solutions by sharing their story and calling for solutions.
Emergency physicians who have been hurt or threatened on the job are speaking out. ACEP encourages any member to share their personal stories.
ACEP refuses to accept that ED violence is “just part of the job.” As we work to prevent violence in EDs throughout the country, we also continue working to ensure appropriate reporting and followup for violent incidents that do occur, and to guarantee work environments where emergency physicians do not have to fear professional retaliation for reporting incidents.
ACEP strongly supports policies to protect emergency physicians, nurses, and other health care workers from violence in the emergency department (ED) and other health care settings.
Emergency physicians’ support led to the introduction of the bipartisan “Save Healthcare Workers (SAVE) Act” (H.R. 3178/S.1600), authored by Reps. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, MD (R-IA), and Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) and Angus King (I-ME). The SAVE Act establishes federal criminal penalties for violence against health care workers, similar to those in place for airline and airport workers. Importantly, the bill also establishes critical safeguards to help protect vulnerable patients – this approach is not about criminalizing those in need of emergency care, it is about deterring violence and holding accountable individuals who are knowingly and competently violent.
ACEP also supports the “Workplace Violence Prevention Act for Health Care and Social Service Workers,” (H.R. 2531/S.1176), a bill introduced by Reps. Joe Courtney (D-CT) and Don Bacon (R-NE), and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) that calls on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to require health care and social service employers to create and implement workplace violence prevention plans.
ACEP and the Emergency Nurses Association have partnered since 2018 on the No Silence on ED Violence campaign to raise awareness, advocate for policy changes and strengthen protections for frontline workers.
Emergency physicians can advocate within their own workplace using ACEP's sample checklist of safety and violence prevention measures that they can ask their workplace about to understand which are in place. It draws from existing ACEP policy and requirements from The Joint Commission on measures hospitals must have in place.
