KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chris Buesing was walking through the hallway of an orthopedic clinic at Stormont Vail Health in Topeka, Kansas, where he worked when a man came up and punched him in the face.
The attack six years ago altered the course of Buesing’s life.
His jaw was wired shut for six weeks, then had to be re-broken and shut again for eight weeks. Two years of braces followed.
“The attack not only impacted me physically but it also had an emotional impact. During the months my jaw was wired shut, I experienced anxiety and depression. I found myself always on alert. It impacted my time with my wife and children,” Buesing, who now leads Stormont Vail’s workplace safety efforts, told Kansas lawmakers in January.
Violence against health care workers has caused growing alarm in recent years, in Kansas and across the nation. Doctors, nurses and others who work in hospitals and medical facilities can often recount incidents in which they or their colleagues have been hit, slapped, spit on or otherwise battered while on the job.
Medical professionals say they recognize that individuals with dementia or other mental health conditions in some instances may physically resist treatment or become confrontational. What is causing concern now, they say, aren’t incidents arising from patients unaware of their actions, but intentional violent episodes caused by angry patients and visitors.
But as the Kansas Legislature prepares to wrap up its work for the year, a proposal to bolster criminal penalties for hitting health care workers remains in limbo. The bill would create the crime of interfering with the conduct of a health care facility and add an enhanced sentence for battery of a health care worker.
Similar provisions are already in place for Kansas firefighters, law enforcement and other first responders. In 2021, Missouri lawmakers passed a health care interference law, leaving providers on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metro without similar protections.
The pandemic has left health care workers burned out and frustrated, providers say. Recruiting and retaining employees has become more difficult, and violent episodes only drive out workers more quickly.
“All of us have episodes where we know someone who has experienced violence and it was the last straw and then they walk away. Right now, we can’t replace them as easily as we were before,” Alan Verrill, CEO of AdventHealth South Overland Park, told reporters Wednesday during a panel discussion organized by the Kansas Hospital Association.
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