ATLANTA — Wednesday's deadly mass shooting in Midtown Atlanta put a spotlight on safety at hospitals and medical facilities.
Healthcare employees who work on a hospital campus will soon have more protections. This week, Gov. Brian Kemp signed the Safer Hospitals Act into law.
Hospitals will soon be able to form their own police departments, and anyone who's convicted of assaulting a healthcare worker at a hospital can now face anywhere from three to 20 years in prison.
Witnessing violence in a hospital is something Dr. Eddie Richardson, Jr. knows all too well.
“A patient became very violent and actually attacked one of the nurses that was in the ER bay that I was very close to," Richardson said.
Richardson works at several Georgia hospitals, including Putnam General Hospital. He said that a nurse he knew left the field due to PTSD, and he's had to call police several times in the past because of verbally abusive patients.
“I even felt at one time that I needed to put a peace officer in my waiting room just to make sure that they know we had a show of force," Richardson said.
Now he feels some relief that hospital healthcare workers will have the same protections as law enforcement, teachers and paramedics.
“We know most of the time in offices, they’re staffed by females," Richardson explained. "When you have a large male or a male or even sometimes disgruntled females, that's a very intense situation in a closed area.”
“Every hour, two nurses are assaulted, as well as nurses are five times more likely to be assaulted than your average workers," Georgia Nurses Association CEO Matt Caseman said.
Certified police officers can carry a firearm on hospital property, and they have arrest powers under the new law.
That's something Caseman thinks could help keep everybody safe.
“There will be police on site that can not only get to locations quickly where there’s a violent incident happening, but they can also handle the reporting for the healthcare workers," Caseman said.
“Sometimes that helps to de-escalate situations because we're there to provide health care," Richardson explained. "We're not there to restrain people. We're not here to fight with people.”
Northside Hospital already posted openings for police officers. The law goes into effect July 1.