Bismarck, N.D. – The North Dakota legislature took a series of actions during its past session to address a number of pressing matters facing the healthcare industry.
The solutions ranged from expanding behavioral health bed capacity, to tackling staffing shortages, and better protecting healthcare staffers from rising violent assaults at the hands of patients.
The definition of an existing law that provides enhanced legal protections for essential workers like police and firefighters was expanded to cover the broader ‘hospital worker’ while performing essential duties.
Prior to this, only hospital emergency workers were covered.
Violators face a Class C felony, which carries a $10,000 fine, or a maximum sentence of five years in prison along with that fine.
“We see that increase in violence against healthcare workers and a lot of them are leaving the industry,” Sanford Health’s Doctor Todd Schafer told The Flag’s What’s On Your Mind?
“We try recruiting as many excellent nurses and staff as we can, but we want to do what we can to keep them safe so they’ll stay with us as well.”
Schafer says medical professionals have asked for increased penalties for years, and gave partial credit to GOP State Representative Pat Heinert, who is a former sheriff in Burleigh County, for pushing the bill over the finish line.
“We know that it works,” said Dr. Schafer. “We have demonstrated that we have seen a nice decline in assaults.”
Listen: Sanford Health’s Doctor Todd Schafer on The Flag’s What’s On Your Mind
Schafer points out that the punishments are intended for the most violent patients.
“If it’s a little old lady who is demented and they strike out, that’s not what this is designed for,” said Schafer. “It’s for people who are very upset and might throw a punch or kick someone in the head. All of that has happened at our facility.”
Asked why there’s been a spike in assaults, Schafer says there’s no “great explanation” but acknowledged several factors.
“We do see an increase in behavioral health issues throughout the population and that plays into it,” Schafer responded.
Schafer was also pleased with the amount of state funding authorized this year for providers who address behavioral health.
More than $30 million in state funding was made available for new psychiatric beds at several locations.
They include CHI St. Alexius Health in Bismarck and Williston, and the Altru Behavioral Health Center in Grand Forks, where groundbreaking took place this month on an expansion project.
Lawmakers also approved a $300 million budget for a new state hospital in Jamestown.
“This is the state’s capacity to really care for the most severely mentally ill patients who have nowhere else to go,” said Schafer.
“Now they [the patients] can leave our facilities and go where they can be more appropriately be treated and helps open our beds so we can serve more patients in our communities.”
To address the ongoing healthcare worker shortage, Schafer says the state approved laws that promote the retention of graduates from healthcare programs to find employment in North Dakota.
And more out-of-state medical professionals are now allowed to relocate and work in North Dakota without having to reapply for licensing in their field.
