Four months after a man rushed an emergency department doctor with a hatchet at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Carilion Clinic has expanded its security measures to all main entrances at the facility.
Initially piloted in the emergency department, the new protocols took effect across the whole campus Tuesday.
Violence against health care workers, particularly those working in emergency departments, has increased across the U.S. in recent years, according to a 2024 poll conducted by the American College of Emergency Physicians. More than nine in ten emergency department doctors reported being threatened or attacked in the past year, the poll found.
Health systems across the country have implemented stricter safety measures in response to the increased violence.
Before entering the Carilion hospital, guests will walk through two free-standing pillars that make up the metal detector units. Metal detectors like these are used at other health care facilities across the state, Wrenn Brendel, vice president of emergency services at the hospital, said during an April walkthrough of the expanded emergency department.
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All bags will be searched and visitors over 18 years old must wear an identification badge at all times while inside the hospital.
There’s also a renewed list of prohibited items. Visitors cannot carry firearms, knives, blunt objects, vapes or other similar items into the hospital, according to a Tuesday press release from Carilion.
“While we’re constantly evaluating safety measures for all facilities, we are piloting weapons detection at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital given its high patient volumes as the region’s only Level 1 trauma center,” Carl Cline, Carilion’s vice president for police and security, said in the release. “We will share details about future expansion as they become available.”
Cline was not available for interviews on Tuesday.
On Christmas Day 2024, a person carrying a backpack ran down a hallway in Roanoke Memorial’s emergency department and ducked into a doctor’s office, according to previous reporting by the Roanoke Rambler, citing a Carilion police report.
When the man emerged, he was wielding a hatchet and charged at an emergency department doctor. Before officers could restrain him, he sprayed one with wasp spray. Inside his backpack, authorities found a crowbar and a knife, according to the report
Carilion was already working to improve hospital security at the time, the Rambler reported, but the Christmas Day attack underscored the urgency.
Workplace violence is a growing concern in hospitals. Health care workers experience more than three times the rate of workplace violence than other workers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although they represent just 10% of the national workforce, they account for nearly half, 48%, of all nonfatal injuries related to workplace violence.
Reports of harassment have also risen. More than twice as many health care workers said they experienced harassment on the job in 2022 compared to 2018, increasing from 6% to 13% over that time, according to a 2023 Vital Signs report published by the CDC.
Virginia lawmakers have taken steps in recent years to address the issue. In 2023, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a law requiring all hospitals with an emergency department to maintain a 24/7 security presence of either off-duty law enforcement or trained personnel.
Earlier this year, another law was passed mandating that all hospitals implement a workplace violence incident reporting system. Hospitals must report the data quarterly to their chief medical and nursing offices and submit an annual report to the Virginia Department of Health. That report must include the number of workplace violence incidents voluntarily reported by staff.
The legislation also directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to convene a stakeholder work group to recommend improvements to the reporting system and broader hospital safety policies.
The new law takes effect July 1.