Speaking with Dr. Gillian Schmitz as she continues her tireless work at the College, we reviewed hot topics like violence in the emergency department (ED), mental health, and the future of the profession.

Question: The emergency department should be a safe place for everyone, but just recently we have seen orthopedic physicians and staff murdered and emergency workers stabbed. What has ACEP done to address workplace safety?

Dr. Schmitz: ACEP has made addressing violence in the ED a top advocacy priority. ACEP initiated the “No Silence on ED Violence” campaign with the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) in 2019. This joint effort equips and empowers our respective members to effect needed safety improvements at their hospitals, while engaging state and federal policymakers, stakeholder organizations, and the public at large to generate action to address this crisis. In 2020, ACEP and ENA were part of an action team sponsored by the National Quality Forum, which included 27 experts and recognized leaders from the private and public sector committed to improving the safety of the health care workforce. Throughout the pandemic, we all felt a rise in the hostility of our patients and the public and increased emotional and physical violence in the ED. ACEP surveyed our membership and found some startling statistics. Almost half of emergency physicians report being physically assaulted at work, while about 70 percent of emergency nurses report being hit and kicked while on the job.

Getting kicked, punched, or emotionally assaulted at work should never be “part of the job.” Assailants who threaten health care workers need to be held accountable. Physicians and nurses need to feel safe. ACEP felt so strongly about this issue that we made it one of our three major advocacy focuses at our Leadership and Advocacy Conference (LAC) in 2022. We hosted hundreds of meetings with legislators to support the Workplace Violence Prevention Act for Health Care and Social Service Workers (H.R. 1195) and its companion bill in the Senate. This bill would require OSHA to create standards to curb ED violence and track and report cases of assault. ACEP also contributed to the development of new The Joint Commission (TJC) workplace violence prevention requirements that became effective at the beginning of this year.

Question: The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on emergency physicians. ACEP recently celebrated the success of the Dr. Lorna Breen Act. Last year, when we spoke to ACEP Immediate Past President Rosenberg, govtrack.us gave the bill a three percent chance of ever passing. How did ACEP succeed where the experts thought we would fail?