(The Center Square) – Health care workers in Altoona held a vigil Monday night to demand increased safety for hospital employees.
The event came weeks after UPMC emergency room technician Travis Dunn was brutally attacked by a patient, leaving him with a skull fracture and brain bleed among other injuries.
Between the physical demands of their jobs and the volatility of working with patients, health care workers are exposed to more on-the-job injuries than most other professions. Staff say there are additional tolls on emotional and mental health from occupational overwhelm and patient behavior, which they say go hand in hand.
Across the country, signs demanding patients and customers treat staff with patience and civility have cropped up at pharmacies, hospitals, and doctors’ offices. Both scientific studies and polling have supported the sense many Americans have that public behavior has taken a downward shift since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but the violence occurring in hospitals goes beyond simple rudeness.
Rising among the risks to health care workers nationwide is the kind of extreme violence that led to the fatal shooting of Patrolman Andrew Duarte at UPMC Memorial Hospital in York last February.
“Nurses are leaving Altoona because they’re mentally and physically exhausted, and worried about being put in danger every day,” said firefighter Patrick Miller, president of the International Association of Fire Fighter Local 299. “I see the impact of the understaffing crisis in the Altoona emergency room every time we bring patients there. There are patients waiting for hours in the hallways to receive urgent care.”
To address the violence, lawmakers within the state legislature have put forward bills. At the same time, workers have demanded that their employers do more to address the root causes of workplace violence.
Members of Service Employees International Union in the state say that the wave of increased violence largely comes down to staffing. Over the last decade, staffing numbers have dropped at UPMC Altoona, with 1,433 employees doing the work tasked to 2,297 in 2013. With fewer people doing more work, tensions run high and care runs slow.
“We have to make this attack on our much-loved coworker a wake up call for UPMC executives to finally fix the understaffing and safety crisis at Altoona,” said Leann Oppel, who has worked 13 years at the facility. “Out of the original group of 65 people I first started with in the surgical progressive care unit, not a single one is left, that’s how bad our turnover is. When we’re so understaffed, we can’t care for our patients the way we believe in, and that leads to moral injury, meaning our core values are violated.”
UPMC says it’s taking staff concerns seriously.
“Our commitment to safety is unwavering,” wrote UPMC in a statement posted to Facebook following the incident. “Over the past year, we have implemented hundreds of enhancements across UPMC—including advanced de-escalation training, panic buttons, secure rooms, reduced access points, and state-of-the-art entrance technologies. These improvements are guided by feedback from our employees and physicians.
“Violence in health care settings is a growing concern nationwide. At UPMC Altoona, we are taking proactive steps—not just reacting. We remain steadfast in our commitment to the safety and well-being of every employee, patient, and visitor who enters our doors.”
SEIU members say that UPMC, a megolith in Pennsylvania’s health care landscape, can afford to make the staffing changes they believe are necessary to solve its problems. The system boasted $30 billion in operating revenue for 2024. UPMC CEO Leslie Davis earned more than $11 million last year with even more going to retired CEO Jeffrey Romoff.
The gap between health care workers and executives, however, isn’t the only issue at play. Increasing wages, as SEIU has demanded, may help workers keep up with the cost of living and prevent attrition to higher pa
ying retail jobs, but the field will need a lot more new blood to repair the damage created by staffing shortages. As the state attempts to create incentive programs for students to pursue health care roles, solutions for the industry seem far fewer than challenges.
