“I was assaulted. My coworker and I were both assaulted in one big issue. Another day, a [patient care technician] had her nose broken. Another day, a glass window in the secure behavioral health unit was punched out by a patient. And another coworker of mine was choked. And it was all within the first two weeks of July," said Megan Monteiro.
Monteiro has been a registered nurse in the Emergency Department at MidHudson Regional Hospital for two years. She says in that time -- and even since the summer -- she’s seen an increase in violence by patients against workers.
The described incidents come as workers in MidHudson's Emergency Department say they are struggling with chronic understaffing, workplace violence, and burnout that makes patient care more difficult. They said those conditions create a vicious cycle that, in turn, leads to more workers leaving the hospital.
“We're all just kind of praying that nothing too serious happens,” Monteiro said.
Monteiro said she was assault by a patient who waiting in the emergency unit for an inpatient bed for over a week.
“Can you imagine how frustrated you would be if you were holding in an emergency room for that long?” Monteiro said.
Workers told WAMC that understaffing is a significant issue. Multiple sources said the emergency unit regularly has one nurse to 12 patients, far above the hospital’s own staffing guidelines of 1 nurse to 4 patients.
Alicia Yereance, is a patient care technician in the Emergency Department, and has worked at MidHudson for 11 years before starting in the behavioral unit.
Yereance said technicians used to be responsible for placement of patients, but a few years ago, the hospital transitioned that role to a social worker, who is responsible for comprehensive evaluations.
“If [the social worker] get[s] to see three people in their eight-hour shift, that's a lot," Yereance explained. "And if we have 25 people waiting, that's 22 other people that feel like they're being ignored, that aren't getting listened to, that are sitting in a chair in the hallway with their personal belongings taken from them, with nothing to do. And they're just waiting.”
If a patient in crisis feels ignored, that poses a risk to everyone, Yereance said.
"So, they get really frustrated, and that boils over into violence more often than not,” she said.
Yereance said recently she has seen many more patients struggling with mental health concerns. Those patients often get assigned to the behavioral health unit, but it usually overflows into the emergency unit. She said those patients are often the ones who become violent.
Monteiro said there is an expectation that violence is just part of the job for healthcare workers.
“I'd like to go home to my family in the same condition that I want. And for a colleague on the behavioral health floor just a few weeks ago, this was not the case. And she was assaulted terribly. And then she had to become a patient down in the ER,” Monteiro said.
Shannon Santiago, administrative organizer for 1199 SEIU, said the issue is widespread. Increased hospital violence has also been reported in Albany and Kingston.
Lynn Nichols, director of Marketing and Communications at Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth), the network the operates MidHudson Regional Hospital, said in a statement in August that the healthcare network takes workplace violence very seriously.
“MidHudson Regional Hospital maintains multiple layers of security, including security personnel [and] surveillance systems… We also review safety incidents and trends to identify opportunities for additional prevention,” Nichols said.
Last week, a spokesperson for WMCHealth said in response to additional questions, “We recognize the challenges frontline employees face in caring for patients with complex behavioral health needs, particularly in emergency department settings. We take concerns regarding staffing, patient flow, and workplace safety seriously and are committed to continuously evaluating our processes and identifying opportunities to better support our employees while ensuring safe, high quality patient care.”
The spokesperson also said WMCHealth “has made significant investments to expand behavioral health services,” including refurbishing and expanding the inpatient behavioral health unit.
A 2022 nationwide survey by the American College of Emergency Physicians found workers who said they were physically assaulted multiple times a week increased from 8% of respondents in 2018 to 24% in 2022.
ACEP’s most recent survey in 2024 showed 71% of workers said emergency department violence is worse than the prior year. And 68% of workers said their employer’s response was not appropriate, with half of that group saying “nothing was done.”
Half of respondents said they would feel safer with legislation to strengthen workforce protections and a third said they would like increased investments in safety.
The union said in a statement in June that nurses and healthcare workers at hospitals including MidHudson, Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern and Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis -- all part of the WMCHealth Network -- are calling for “workplace safety, improved wages, and health and retirement benefits that match other local hospitals.” The union also said workers at those hospitals “are working for significantly lower wages than their peers at neighboring hospitals, and many still don't have a pension.”
Yereance said recently Monteiro was successful in her attempts to get a security guard to sit in the emergency department. She said just their presence can sometimes stop a patient from becoming violent. Even still, Yereance said the work takes a toll.
“Over the past few years, the burnout is real. It's real. You just don't leave work feeling like you help people as much anymore as you used to,” Yereance said.
Multiple solutions are needed
Amy Nixon, Senior Vice President for State Policy for the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) supports policies to get more people into the healthcare field.
“Hospitals across the state are partnering with local community colleges and others to try to help build that pipeline so that we are introducing youth today into the incredible and rewarding work of being a part of our healthcare field,” Nixon said.
SUNY Orange is one university that has expanded its nursing program and is working to move students into healthcare more easily.
Nixon also said they support all hospitals efforts to bolster security and infrastructure. She said HANYS supports proposed federal policy called the Save Healthcare Workers Act.
“This measure would provide protections for healthcare workers like those that already exist right now for flight attendants and for airport workers. So ultimately, it would make it this legislation would make it a federal crime is if to assault or to intimidate a hospital employee,” Nixon said.
The Act would also establish a federal grant program to support hospitals efforts to reduce violence.
She also said granting peace officer status to security workers makes them more effective.
Recently several studies have suggested that hospitals across New York could be negatively impacted by historic Medicaid cuts included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed in 2025. Some studies suggest some financially struggling hospitals could close.
“There is no doubt that enactment of those federal provisions will lead to billions in losses for hospitals across New York State and further deterioration of the healthcare system,” Nixon said.
Yereance said she is concerned this could overwhelm MidHudson even more.
“It is frightening to know that there are people whose resources are going to be cut, which means they're going to come to us because they don't have a choice,” Yereance said.
She also said she thinks that Bail Reform has led to more people being sent to the hospital, when she thinks they should be in jail.
Yereance did say though that the data does not support what she says. Bail Reform took effect in January 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Yereance said, “I'm not a police officer. I don't have a taser. I can't fight back if a patient assaults me. All I can do is protect myself and hope that help comes fast enough before I get really harmed.”
