FEATURED: A new state law, supported by the Rio Grande Valley state legislative delegation, makes it a minimum of a Third Degree Felony for anyone who assaults a healthcare worker – such as physicians, physician assistants, nurses, maintenance or janitorial staff, receptionists, and other individuals – when those personnel are on duty at a nongovernment hospital property, including all land and buildings owned or leased by the hospital. In 2021, there were 517 hospitals in Texas, of which 266 were nongovernment complexes, such as DHR Health, of which a portion of one of its Edinburg campuses is highlighted in this image.
Photograph Courtesy DHR Health Facebook
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Valley lawmakers helped lead establishment of new state law that further protects healthcare staff in hospitals not owned by government from assault that causes bodily injury, reports DHR Health
By DAVID A. DÍAZ
[email protected]
A new state law that makes it a Third Degree Felony for a person who assaults a healthcare worker who is on the job in a hospital not owned by the government, when the attack causes bodily injury, was supported by the Rio Grande Valley state legislative delegation, according to DHR Health.
A nongovernment hospital includes for-profits and non-profits. In 2021, there were 517 hospitals in Texas, of which 266 were for-profits.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/202979/number-of-hospitals-in-texas-by-ownership-type/
Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, Rep. Erin Gámez, D-Brownsville, and Rep. Janie López, R-San Benito, took leadership roles in the establishment of the law.DHR Health, afor-profit non-government institution, operates two general acute hospitals, the only dedicated women’s hospital south of San Antonio, a rehabilitation hospital, a behavioral hospital, and more than 70 clinics Valley-wide.
DHR Health offers the most comprehensive and sophisticated healthcare services in the Rio Grande Valley including – but not limited to – advanced cancer services, the only transplant program in the Rio Grande Valley, and as of September 8, 2021, the first 24/7 Designated Level One Trauma Center south of San Antonio.
Workplace violence is a recognized hazard in the healthcare industry, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Workplace violence is any act or threat of physical violence, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site.
https://www.osha.gov/healthcare/workplace-violence
Physicians, physician assistants, nurses, maintenance or janitorial staff, receptionists, and other individuals, when they are working on hospital property, including all land and buildings owned or leased by the hospital, are now better protected as a result of Senate Bill 840.
Senate Bill 840 was approved by the Texas Legislature on Friday,May 12, 2023, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday,May 24, 2023, and went into effect on Friday, September 1, 2023.Prior to becoming state law, any individual charged with such actions in a nongovernment hospital would be facing a Class A Misdemeanor, and if found guilty, could be punished by a fine not to exceed $4,000, confinement in jail for a term not to exceed one year, or both such fine and confinement.
But as a result of Senate Bill 840, a defendant convicted of this Third Degree Felony now can be be punished by imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for any term of not more than 10 years or less than two years.
Senate Bill 840 is named the Jacqueline “Jackie” Pokuaa and Katie “Annette” Flowers Act in memory of the social worker and nurse shot and killed at their place of employment – Methodist Dallas Medical Center – in October 2022.
Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, was the author of Senate Bill 840. Hinojosa was a coauthor.
As the author, West was the legislator (also called primary author) who filed Senate Bill 840 and guided it through the legislative process.
“Filed” is used to refer to a bill that has been introduced into the legislative process and given a number.
A bill is a type of legislative measure that requires passage by both the Senate and the House of Representatives and action by the governor in order to become effective. A bill is the primary means used to create and change the laws of the state.
As coauthor, Hinojosa was the legislator authorized by West to join in the authorship – and help lead Senate Bill 840 – through the legislative process.
Hinojosa had filed an identical bill – Senate Bill 2473 – to West’s Senate Bill 840.
“As a member of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, the incident that occurred at the Methodist Dallas Medical Center was brought to my attention and required swift action, which is why I filed Senate Bill 2473,” said Hinojosa. “I also coauthored and supported an identical companion, Senate Bill 840 by Sen. West. Considering the incident occurred in Sen. West’s district, Senate Bill 840 was ultimately passed and signed by Gov. Abbott.”
During the public hearing on Tuesday, April 18, 2023before the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice – of which West and Hinojosa are members – West provided background on the shocking attack which led to his filing of Senate Bill 840.
“On Saturday, October 22, 2022, in my senatorial district, something unimaginable and unthinkable took place inside the walls of the Methodist Dallas Medical Center, a place dedicated to saving lives,” West recalled. “An already engaged gunman, a person on parole, inexplicably opened fire on two hospital workers in a hospital room, killing them both, after shooting the mother of his recently-born child repeatedly with the same handgun.
“He was shot and subdued by hospital police, ending the fatal attack on two innocent medical professionals,” West continued. “In this instance, the attacker was on parole, released following conviction f0r two aggravated robberies.”
Following testimony on his measure, the North Texas senator said with concern and disappointment, “We’re getting to a point in our society that we have to harden all of our institutions – our schools, our hospitals – institutions designed to help citizens. It’s unfortunate that we need to do this, but those are the times in which we live.”
Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, served as the sponsor – also known as the main sponsor – of Senate Bill 840, and was the lawmaker who was the main House member who guided Senate Bill 840 through the House of Representatives.
As cosponsors of Senate Bill 840, Gámez and López joined with Anchia to help secure approval of the measure by the House of Representatives.
More about Senate Bill 840
Gámez and López shared their reasons for taking leadership roles in the House of Representatives to help secure approval for the measure.
“I’m proud to have co-sponsored and helped pass Senate Bill 840. For some time, healthcare workers in the United States have borne a disproportionate burden of workplace violence. Unfortunately, the tragic events of the hospital hooting in Dallas last year thrust this issue into the spotlight,” said Gámez. “I am optimistic that the implementation of Senate Bill 840 will contribute to a reduction in the number of assaults endured by our healthcare professionals in their workplaces. It is crucial that we take meaningful steps to create a safer environment for those who dedicate themselves to caring for others.”
“Assaults on healthcare workers are unacceptable, and this legislation reflects our commitment to their safety. Healthcare workers in the U.S. have been dealing with way too much workplace violence for too long” López pointed out. “I genuinely believe that with Senate Bill 840 in action, we’re taking a step forward to make our healthcare heroes’ workplaces safer, allowing them to focus on what they do best – supporting those in need. I’m really proud to be part of the team that got Senate Bill 840 across the finish line.”According to Cristina Campbell, BSN, RN, reporting on behalf of the Texas Nurses Association, “Workplace violence against nurses, in particular, is a critical threat. Many hospitals reported an uptick in violence that started during COVID and has continued to escalate.”
Campbell has 15 years of experience in healthcare. Her clinical experience includes: adult and pediatric inpatient cardiac care, care transition, care management, clinical transformation, and research. She is passionate about advocating for those who need help being heard.
“The prevalence of workplace violence for healthcare workers far exceeds that of any other industry. Per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers in healthcare and social services industries are five times more likely to be injured than workers in other industries,” Campbell said. “Workplace violence can include anything from threats to verbal abuse to physical assault, even homicide. From 2011 to 2018, the rate of injuries from violent attacks against medical providers increased by 68 percent.”
https://allnurses.com/news/texas-legislative-bills-passed-make-r31/
“This is a violence prevention measure.”
Four main witnesses testified in support on Senate Bill 840 during the Tuesday,April 18, 2023public hearing before the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice.
Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, was Chair of the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice.
Highlights of the respective testimony on Tuesday, April 18, 2023 by those witnesses follow:
Steve Whole
General Counsel
Texas Hospital Association
Preventing violence against our hospital staff is a priority for Texas hospitals. We were all shocked and saddened by what happened at (Methodist Dallas Medical Center) in October (2022). The tragic events leading to the filing of this bill are a stark reminder of the potential risk that health care workers face when they show up for work. Senate Bill 840 is a violence-prevention measure.
Jennifer Kachel
Assistant District Attorney
Dallas County District Attorney.
Senate Bill 840 would add a provision to the Penal Code to protect all (nongovernment) hospital personnel who are assaulted while doing their jobs. Currently, only when emergency service personnel are specifically providing emergency medical services when assaulted does the law deem this a felony. There is also a distinction between those who work for a (government) hospital, such as Parkland Hospital or JPS in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and (nongovernment) hospitals. If any (government) hospital employee is assaulted, it is a felony under “Assault-Public Servant” in the Penal Code, while if someone performing the same role in a(nongovernment) hospital is assaulted, it is merely a misdemeanor.
Dan Blizzard
Vice President, Strategic Priorities
Methodist Health System
Like the overwhelming majority of healthcare facilities across Texas, Methodist Health System facilities are not impenetrable fortresses designed to prevent anyone intending to do harm from entering, but instead are places providing an environment where those who have been harmed, or are in need of care, feel comfortable seeking the help they need. To try and avoid a similar tragedy in the future, we strongly urge you to advance this legislation.
Steven Love
President and CEO
Dallas-Ft. Worth Hospital Council
We support this bill because we want to protect patients, we want to protect families, but we also want to protect our healthcare workers so that they’re not subjected to the kinds of things that happened at Methodist. The American Hospital Association also did a survey two years ago. Sixty-eight percent of nurses are verbally abused, and forty-four percent were physically abused during that time frame. So we support this bill.
Full testimony
Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas
Primary Author
Senate Bill 840
Members, on Saturday, October 22, 2022, in my senatorial district, something unimaginable and unthinkable took place inside the walls of the Methodist Dallas Medical Center, a place dedicated to saving lives.
An already engaged gunman, a person on parole, inexplicably opened fire on two hospital workers in a hospital room, killing them both, after shooting the mother of his recently-born child repeatedly with the same handgun.
He was shot and subdued by hospital police, ending the fatal attack on two innocent medical professionals.
The Jacqueline “Jackie” Pokuaa and Katie “Annette” Flowers Act is one of a package of bills filed by members of the Dallas legislative delegation and others who are determined to eliminate, if possible, the chances that a similar event will happen again.
Sen. (Joan) Huffman (R-Houston) already passed from this committee a bill, Sen. Hinojosa has a bill also. I think all three of these particular bills will in effect, handle or mitigate the chance of this occurrence again. If passed into law, Senate Bill 840 would increase the penalty of assaulting certain hospital personnel from a Class A Misdemeanor to a Third Degree Felony offense. It addresses offenses that take place while a worker or workers are on duty at the medical facility where they are employed.
In this instance, the attacker was on parole, released following conviction f0r two aggravated robberies.
Senate Bill 84o would amend the Penal Code, Section 22.01, by adding Subsection 9 to imply intent, using language saying that an actor knows the person they are assaulting is a hospital personnel. It also amends by adding Section 1A that defines hospital personnel.
The Texas Medical Nurses Association is on record saying that workplace violence, particularly against nurses, started increasing even before the (COVID-19) pandemic, and has asked for us, as legislators, to help protect, health care workers.
Now, we have received some questions from (a group) which represents disability rights, concerning this particular bill, and we have pledged to work with them to make certain that there are no unintended consequences as it relates to persons with mental wellness. I think there aren’t any because you have to have a culpable mental state in order to be charged with this crime.
Steve Wohleb
General Counsel
Texas Hospital Association
Thank you, Mr. Chair, members. I’m here on behalf of our over 470 hospital and hospital system members, testifying in support of Senate Bill 840.
Preventing violence against our hospital staff is a priority for Texas hospitals. We sincerely appreciate Sen. West for filing Senate Bill 840. We were all shocked and saddened by what happened at (Methodist Dallas Medical Center) in October (2022). The tragic events leading to the filing of this bill are a stark reminder of the potential risk that health care workers face when they show up for work.
Senate Bill 840 is a violence prevention measure.
In late 2022, Texas Hospital Association surveyed its member hospitals on a variety of workforce issues, including workplace violence, to better understand the workforce challenges impacting our member hospitals. Responses to the survey indicated that violence in hospital had significantly increased or stayed the same since the start of the pandemic.
Sixty-one percent of the responding hospitals reported violence severity has also increased.
We’re asking you this (88th regular) session to significantly fund an increase in capacity of our state’s nursing schools. We also strongly support efforts to ensure a safe work environment for hospital staff. Texas Hospital Association is supporting several legislative initiatives this session directly aimed at reducing workplace violence in health care.
Texas Hospital Association supports the bill’s broad application to include any person, even other hospital personnel, who assault hospital staff. However, we want to be clear that Texas Hospital Association does not support the criminalization of mental health and believes that this bill will not lead to any increase in charges in being filed for the very reason that was just mentioned in the bill layout (by Sen. West).
I want to thank Sen. West for authoring this bill and for working with us to keep hospital personnel safe.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today, and we would appreciate your support of this bill.
Jennifer Kachel
Assistant District Attorney
Dallas County District Attorney
There are only certain instances in which an assault is a felony offense when committed against specifically-designated hospital staff.
Senate Bill 840 would add a provision to the Penal Code to protect all hospital personnel who are assaulted while doing their jobs. Currently, only when emergency service personnel are specifically providing emergency medical services when assaulted does the law deem this a felony.
This means that if a hospital staff member is assaulted while providing discharge instructions to a patient, a postpartum nurse is assaulted while caring for a new mother and baby, a janitorial staff member is assaulted while keeping a hospital clean and safe, or a hospital social worker is assaulted while providing services and resources to a patient and their family, these offenses would not be a felony offense under current law.
There is also a distinction between those who work for a public hospital, such as Parkland Hospital or JPS in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and private hospitals. If any public hospital employee is assaulted, it is a felony under “Assault-Public Servant” in the Penal Code, while if someone performing the same role in a private hospital is assaulted, it is merely a misdemeanor.
Our healthcare professionals have had a very challenging and difficult last two years serving our communities in the front line during the COVID pandemic. Every person who works in a hospital is providing a service to your community and keeping a crucial institution running. Many of our healthcare workers feel abandoned and unprotected by our current laws.
When the hostile and abusive behavior they often experience turns physical, they look to law enforcement for help. As law enforcement, we are often limited by the laws that are currently written. Senate Bill 840 would close these loopholes (so) the law is clear and protect those who care for us at our time of medical need. Thank you.
Dan Blizzard
Vice President, Strategic Priorities
Methodist Health System
On behalf of the nearly 10,000 employees and physicians practicing at Methodist Health System hospitals in north Texas, we want to express our sincere appreciation, Chairman Whitmire and the members of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, for agreeing to consider this legislation.
Like the overwhelming majority of healthcare facilities across Texas, Methodist Health System facilities are not impenetrable fortresses designed to prevent anyone intending to do harm from entering, but instead are places providing an environment where those who have been harmed, or are in need of care, feel comfortable seeking the help they need.
On October 22, 2022, that caring environment was taken advantage of when a convicted felon, on parole wearing an ankle monitor and armed with a concealed handgun, was granted permission by his parole officer to be present at Methodist Dallas Medical Center for the birth of his child.
On that day, after an argument with his girlfriend, the alleged suspect opened fire and killed two of my colleagues: 45-year old social worker Jacqueline Pokuaa and 63-year old registered nurse Katie Flowers, who had responded to the disturbance in the labor and delivery department in the hospital.
A (Methodist Dallas Medical Center) police officer, Sgt. Robert Rangel, engaged and disarmed the alleged suspect, thereby preventing his escape, (stopping) further harm to patients, employees and physicians in the hospital.
To try and avoid a similar tragedy in the future, we strongly urge you to advance this legislation.
To the ongoing criminal investigation related to this senseless tragedy, I am not able to comment further on the events of that fateful day, nor on the security measures in place at the time or steps that we have taken since then, or are being considered at Methodist System facilities.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Steven Love
President and CEO
Dallas-Ft. Worth Hospital Council
Irving, Texas
We are certainly in support of this Senate bill.
You know, when you think in terms of a hospital, emotions do rise high. Some days are happy days – labor and delivery, babies are born, new life, family and friends celebrate. Other days, it’s the worst day of your life. Someone is in a tragic automobile accident, and they die in a trauma unit.
So, emotions run high in an environment that is there for welcoming, for healing, and helping people through difficult times.
We support this bill because we want to protect patients, we want to protect families, but we also want to protect our healthcare workers so that they’re not subjected to the kinds of things that happened at Methodist.The American Hospital Association also did a survey two years ago. Sixty-eight percent of nurses are verbally abused, and forty-four percent were physically abused during that time frame. So we support this bill, we thank you for the consideration, and we thank you for your public service.
Sen. Royce West
We’re getting to a point in or society that we have to harden all of our institutions – our schools, our hospitals, institutions designed to help citizens. It’s unfortunate that we need to do this, but those are the times in which we live.
More about DHR Health
On Tuesday, November 16, 2021, Driscoll Health System held a groundbreaking ceremony for Driscoll Children’s Hospital Rio Grande Valley, located at 2820 W. Michelangelo Drive in Edinburg, next to The Women’s Hospital at Renaissance.
DHR Health was instrumental in workin with Driscoll Health System to bring the first true freestanding children’s hospital to the Valley.
The new, independently operated eight-level pediatric hospital will further the mission of Driscoll Children’s Hospital founder Clara Driscoll to provide medical care to all the children of South Texas. The building is expected to be completed in 2024.
The Driscoll Children’s Hospital Rio Grande Valley represents a combined investment of $1o5 million with DHR Health. Driscoll Children’s Hospital Rio Grande Valley will operate with more than 500 employees, creating significant economic impact and new job opportunities for clinical, ancillary and support staff in the Valley.
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For more on this and other Texas legislative news stories that affect the Rio Grande Valley metropolitan region, please log on to Titans of the Texas Legislature (TitansoftheTexasLegislature.com).
