Labor organizers representing nurses at MetroHealth’s Behavioral Health Hospital flagged an urgent need for safety reforms at their facility during a public hearing before the Cuyahoga County Council on Tuesday night.
Ohio Nurses Association (ONA) member Ann Mueller called on MetroHealth System to agree to a fair contract with the recently-unionized staff to provide more workplace protections, including increasing staff.
"Nurses are asking for the ability to do their jobs without being physically assaulted, without being placed in dangerous situations, without being forced to manage patient mixes that are unsafe," she said.
Jeff Bettinger, a MetroHealth nurse and the vice president of the ONA, said the hospital's practice to house violent or sexually aggressive patients alongside nonviolent ones puts everyone at risk.
“Patients are afraid to come out of their rooms, and nurses are subjected to assaults. One patient was assaulted by his roommate in the middle of the night during his sleep," he said. “Imagine being admitted for depression and suicidal thoughts and having to be subjected to violent or sexually aggressive behavior."
The push for change follows the March vote by MetroHealth’s behavioral health nurses to join the ONA.
Their concerns reflect a broader national crisis as nearly 65% of direct-care nurses in Ohio reported experiencing workplace violence in the past year, according to a 2024 ONA survey.
Across the U.S., nurses are assaulted at a rate of approximately two incidents per hour, nearly 17,000 assaults against nurses reported in 2023, according to a report by healthcare tech company Press Ganey. Last month, a nurse working at Wexner Medical Center in Columbus was strangled, in one of the latest high-profile incidents of attacks on health care workers.
When reached for comment, MetroHealth Spokesperson Rita Andolsen said the system is committed to providing a safe environment for all employees and has a solid safety plan in place.
"We have a comprehensive, multi-layered safety policy grounded in evidence-based practice and research that enforces a preventive and proactive approach to address workplace violence," Andolsen said in an emailed statement.
She said the policy includes prevention, intervention and post-incident review.
Union advocates said they are seeking stronger staffing, safer patient-placement protocols and enforceable safety measures that will protect employees and patients.
