H.R.2584 SAVE Act – Legislation to Protect Healthcare Workers Getting Interest in D.C.!

American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) Nurse Leaders in Advocacy 

As of June 12, 2024, 11 bipartisan members of the total 17 Pennsylvania delegates to the House of Representatives signed on as cosponsors to H.R.2584 – Safety From Violence for Healthcare Employees Act (SAVE Act, introduced 04/13/2023). Healthcare organizations have been reaching out to all US Representatives asking them to sign on as a cosponsor to H.R.2584.

Green check ✅ shows the 11 Pennsylvania Representatives in the US House who signed on as cosponsors.  

• 1st district: Brian Fitzpatrick (R) (since 2017) ✅
• 2nd district: Brendan Boyle (D) (since 2015) ✅
• 3rd district: Dwight Evans (D) (since 2016)
• 4th district: Madeleine Dean (D) (since 2019) ✅ (primary cosponsor with Rep. Bucshon)
• 5th district: Mary Gay Scanlon (D) (since 2018)^[1]
• 6th district: Chrissy Houlahan (D) (since 2019) ✅
• 7th district: Susan Wild (D) (since 2018) ✅
• 8th district: Matt Cartwright (D) (since 2013)
• 9th district: Dan Meuser (R) (since 2019) ✅
• 10th district: Scott Perry (R) (since 2013)
• 11th district: Lloyd Smucker (R) (since 2017)
• 12th district: Summer Lee (D) (since 2023)
• 13th district: John Joyce (R) (since 2019) ✅
• 14th district: Guy Reschenthaler (R) (since 2019) ✅
• 15th district: Glenn Thompson (R) (since 2009) ✅
• 16th district: Mike Kelly (R) (since 2011) ✅
• 17th district: Chris Deluzio (D) (since 2023) ✅

The US House of Representatives’ in-district and DC calendar is available at this link:

https://www.majorityleader.gov/uploadedfiles/2024_house_calendar_-_monthly_-_revised_april_2024.pdf

NOTE- the House takes a break beginning August 2024

I participated in advocating for H.R.2584 at the American Organization for Nursing Leadership’s (AONL) Advocacy Day in Washington, DC on June 4, 2024 along with over 200 AONL members nationwide.  We heard so many stories about nurses’ injuries from patients and families that left nurses scarred and unable to work. One of the legislative aides that we met with told us a sad story of workplace violence and injury that she learned from another group of advocates. 

Healthcare environments were not like this in the past, but over the past 10 years, violent behavior impacted healthcare and created a dangerous workplace for nurses and other healthcare workers. “According to Press Ganey, renowned leader in patient, member, employee and consumer experience across the healthcare ecosystem, more than two nursing personnel were assaulted every hour in Q2 2022. That equates to roughly 57 assaults per day, 1,739 assaults per month and 5,217 assaults per quarter.” (Gibson, 2022)

The SAVE Act H.R.2584 will impose felony charges like those which are already in place for airline workers, will fund education for healthcare workers on de-escalation and other self-protection techniques, as well as provide funding to secure hospitals and make them safer.  

In the past three months, over 1/3rd of the cosponsors from the US House of Representatives have signed on to H.R.2584. Representative Deluzio from southwestern Pennsylvania signed on as a cosponsor on May 6, 2024. Representative Boyle from Philadelphia is the most recent cosponsor, signing on June 12, 2024! 

These representatives along with over 100 of their colleagues in the US House of Representatives have heard the pleas from healthcare workers to provide help from the federal government to address workplace violence in healthcare

References: 

Al-Qadi M. M. (2021). Workplace violence in nursing: A concept analysis. Journal of occupational health, 63(1), e12226. https://doi.org/10.1002/1348-9585.12226 

Gibson, K., Coombs, A., Tanner, L., & Whitsel, A. (2022, May 26). Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine Statement: Antihypertensive therapy for mild chronic hypertension in pregnancy–the chronic hypertension and Pregnancy Trial – American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. ACOG. https://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(22)00283-6/fulltext 

Kafle, S., Paudel, S., Thapaliya, A., & Acharya, R. (2022). Workplace violence against nurses: a narrative review. Journal of clinical and translational research, 8(5), 421–424. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9536186/ 

Nurse.org Staff. (2023, September 10). Nurses say violent assaults by patients are a silent epidemic. Nurse.org. https://nurse.org/articles/workplace-violence-in-nursing-and-hospitals/ 

S. 2768 

Safety From Violence for Healthcare Employees Act is the companion bill in the U.S. Senate to H.R.2584, and AONL advocated for both bills.  

The American Healthcare Organization (AHA) developed this Infographic for an at-a-glance summary of this important legislation https://www.aha.org/infographics/2024-02-07-infographic-save-health-care-workers-workplace-violence