A bill increasing penalties for violence against health care providers was sidetracked in the Senate Monday because it’s tied to a measure giving them expanded immunity from civil liability for damages arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Senate sent the bill to a conference committee partly because of a House amendment that expanded civil liability for damages, administrative fines or penalties for acts stemming from the response to COVID-19.
The bill drew opposition from Kansans for Health Freedom, an anti-vaccination group that said the bill would protect hospital administrators who “have fought against patients and their doctors who wanted to try alternative treatments for covid.”
Originally, the bill only provided a shield from civil liability for damages, administrative fines or penalties for acts in direct response to COVID-19.
The bill was amended on the House floor so that it applies to anything that arises out of acts related to the pandemic.
The bill does not apply to extended protections for gross negligence or reckless conduct.
The protections, sought by the Kansas Hospital Association, were extended from March 31 of this year until Jan. 20, 2023. The bill is not retroactive.
Senate President Ty Masterson said senators want to look closer at the change in wording that, while seemingly small, is actually broad in scope.
Kansans for Health Freedom had been emailing senators, urging them to vote against the bill extending civil liability protections for health care workers.
“These administrators refused attempts to save Kansans’ lives, absurdly slandering doctors who promoted safe, off-label treatments as fraudsters,” an email said.
The email contained a picture of Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease specialist with the University of Kansas Health System, quoted as describing doctors promoting alternative COVID-19 treatments as “gentlemen that would travel with the circus…with their elixirs.”
“Now these same hospitals are asking the legislature to excuse their negligence by putting legal immunity for them into state law,” the email said.
“Do not exonerate hospitals for failing covid patients and costing lives,” the email said.
The bill also increases the penalties for violence against health care providers.
The bill puts it on the same level as interfering with a police officer, an emergency medical worker or a firefighter.
The bill creates the misdemeanor offense of interference with the conduct of a hospital and battery against a health care worker.
The legislation comes at a time when violence against health care workers has been getting heightened attention and has become more pronounced during the pandemic.
Before the pandemic hit in 2020, the American College of Emergency Physicians reported that nearly 7 out of 10 emergency room doctors believed that violence was increasing.
More than 50% said that patients had been physically harmed, while 47% of physicians said they were personally attacked at work.
The problem only worsened during the pandemic when hospitals were overrun by patients stricken with the COVID-19 virus while hospitals suffered from staff shortages and turnover because of burnout.
A National Nurses United survey in late 2020 of more than 15, 000 registered nurses found that about 20% said they faced increased on-the-job violence, which they attributed to staffing shortages, changes in their patient population and restrictions for visitors.
The Kansas Hospital Association surveyed 251 individuals at 109 Kansas hospitals and clinics, with a majority of responses coming from critical access hospitals.
The 2019 survey found that 46.2% said patients, visitors or others commit acts of workplace violence at least one to three times a year.
