A proposed bill in California that would increase penalties for violence against emergency department workers has passed one body of the state legislature and awaits consideration in another.
Under existing law, simple assault against a physician, nurse or other emergency department healthcare worker is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and six months in jail. The California Medical Association-sponsored bill, AB 977, would make an assault or battery committed against these workers punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, by a fine not exceeding $2,000, or by both.
Assault under the law is defined as "an unlawful attempt, coupled with present ability, to commit a violent injury on the person of another," and battery is defined as "any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon the person of another."
"Currently, assaults that happen to healthcare workers inside an emergency department carry lesser penalties than the very same assaults that happen outside the emergency department," the CMA said in a January news release. "This bill will ensure that healthcare workers are not treated differently simply because they work in a hospital emergency department."
The CMA also cited a 2022 American College of Emergency Physicians poll that found that emergency department violence increased 24% since 2018.
Opponents of the bill have expressed concerns about the potential disproportionate effects the increased penalties could have on patients of color or those with developmental disabilities, and cite penalties violent patients already face under existing California laws, according to a KFF Health News story published April 1 in The Sacramento Bee.
AB 977 has passed the California Assembly and awaits consideration in the California Senate.