Public Employee Press

Union fights workplace violence as members ask:
"We protect the patients, but who protects us?"

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

An agitated patient was high on K2 synthetic marijuana.

As Darrell Pierre and Samuel David, Behavioral Health Associates at Kings County Hospital Psychiatric Ward, approached him, he pulled a shiv and stabbed the two Local 420 members, slicing David's shoulder and scalp and Pierre's jaw.

Lone Psyche Tech Aitza Caballero searched a patient at Harlem Hospital. When she found a handgun concealed in his things, he grabbed her.

Patient Care Associate Michelle Little awoke in Bellevue's emergency room. A patient had slammed her to the ground, knocking her unconscious.

These public health workers were assaulted on the job by the patients they care for. They are traumatized by the life-threatening workplace violence they experienced firsthand. And they are not alone.

K2 epidemic

Widespread use of the street drug K2 accounts for a surge in violent assaults on hospital workers in New York. NYC Health + Hospitals linked K2 to over 4,500 emergency room visits since January; 1,200 of those occurred in July.

"Until Health + Hospitals comes up with a real plan, our members are relying on their instincts in the absence of training to deal with this current population of violent patients," said Carmen Charles, Local 420 president.

Although Health + Hospitals declared K2 an epidemic in 2014, the nation's largest municipal public hospital system has no set policy, safety training or protocol to protect staff on the front lines in emergency rooms and psychiatric and forensic psychiatric wards.

"A lot of psyche wards don't have panic alarms - only in the nurses' station. Sometimes the hospital gives workers a whistle," said Veronica Foley, a DC 37 Safety and Health Dept. coordinator. "When there is no direct means to contact hospital police or a crisis team, it's a serious problem."

PCA Erica Obuseli was pregnant when Kings County management sent her to the psyche ward to help an irate adolescent patient. The kid struck a blow so hard it knocked Obuseli to the floor. She began to hemorrhage. "I had had several miscarriages," she said. "I prayed to God, 'Please don't let me lose my baby!"

Since the assault, both Obuseli and her now 16-month-old daughter are under doctors' care.

"In the last two years the union has processed 75 to 80 grievances for Local 420 members who were assaulted at Kings County Hospital," said Sr. Council Rep Felicita Creque. Intractable patients have inflicted severe and sometimes permanent injuries on hospital workers, including stab wounds, broken noses, crushed eye sockets and cheek bones, back injuries, migraines, or worse. DC 37 members may qualify for a grant under Article 5, Section 10, of the citywide contract, which allows assault victims to receive their salary for up to 18 months. Health + Hospitals is required to comply with state law and hold their jobs for two years.

Management indifference

Local 420 Chapter Chair Anthony Balfour said, "Bellevue HR is callous at best regarding assaults on Local 420 members. Management reclassifies assaults as accidents and blames the workers when they should provide a safe working environment."

Behavioral Health Associates de-escalate hostile situations. Health + Hospitals pays the lowest wages in the state to its BHAs, who work in the most volatile environments.

Balfour was assaulted by a 17-year-old high on K2, who police had brought to the ER four previous times.

The dangers, he said, are that "some patients come with guns, hatchets, machetes hidden on them; one hid a razor in his rectum."

"Post traumatic stress caused by workplace violence is a very real issue for the members," said Tyler Hemingway, DC 37 Hospitals Division associate director. "They are working in an unsafe environment with no protection and are not being adequately compensated." Health + Hospitals offers no differentials or additional compensation for the risks workers take.

"We put our lives in jeopardy with no protections from the law or our employer," Balfour said. Bellevue's Emergency Room is on the ground floor; its response team is on 12.

"We have one rule for survival," Balfour said. "Never turn your back on a patient."