Assaultive Violence in the Emergency Department – HB4327

HEALTHCARE FRIENDS! This is really important. Our Legislative and Marketing Committee has been asking for support for SB80 and requesting that you advocate with your senator to change the wording from ER staff to all healthcare. That bill would make the assault a felony and require signage placed in the hospital notifying that violators would be punished. UPDATE: HB4327 (introduced more recently) does that very thing.

Specifically: “EXCEPT AS OTHERWISE PROVIDED IN THIS SECTION, AN INDIVIDUAL WHO ASSAULTS, BATTERS, WOUNDS, OR ENDANGERS A HEALTH PROFESSIONAL OR A MEDICAL VOLUNTEER WHO THE INDIVIDUAL KNOWS OR HAS REASON TO KNOW IS PERFORMING HIS OR HER DUTIES IS GUILTY OF A FELONY PUNISHABLE BY IMPRISONMENT OR FINE.” The incarceration or fine rises with the type of injuries received.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? Contact you MICHIGAN house representative for your area and advocate for this bill to pass. This puts TEETH in the reporting and prosecution of the dozens of times a week this happens just in our facility. Don’t know who your representative is? Go to the Michigan Trauma Coalition website, to legislative matters, and there is a link where you can type in your address to find your elected officials. From local through the president. For this, you are looking for your State of Michigan House Representative. Call. Email. Email from your work account to give it some weight. Tell them to pass this bill through. Tell a brief story. We all have at least one. We shouldn’t be hurt helping when you are.