With attacks against workers on the rise, Missouri hospital to give staff panic buttons

Hospital workers.
(Image credit: Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Hundreds of workers at a Missouri hospital will be outfitted with panic buttons, due to a rise in assaults against them.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, attacks against Cox Medical Center Branson employees have tripled, The Associated Press reports. Hospitals are already high-stress environments, something that has been compounded due to COVID-19, and staffers at medical centers across the United States have reported everything from getting screamed at to being threatened with bodily harm.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.