AHA Report Finds Cost of Violence to Facilities and Communities Over $18 Billion in 2023

The AHA has released a report that “measures the substantial financial resources hospitals and health systems spend on preventing and responding to violence in their facilities and communities.”

The report “analyzed the financial costs and broader impacts of violence and threatening behavior and found that the total financial cost of violence to hospitals in 2023 was estimated at $18.27 billion. These costs include healthcare treatment for victims, security staffing for healthcare facilities, and violence prevention programs / training, among other costs.” The AHA also voiced their strong support for the Save Healthcare Workers Act, which was introduced last month and would make it a “federal crime to assault a hospital worker on the job.”

Researchers also “derived the cost estimates from both pre-event violence prevention measures and post-event costs for health care and addressing the consequences of violence both in the community and in the hospital setting.” They found that post-event costs, including treatment of victims, infrastructure repairs, and staff productivity losses, were “estimated at $14.65 billion.” Pre-event efforts to protect workers, including violence prevention programs, training, technology, and facility security investments “accounted for an estimated $3.62 billion.”

The report also mentions “psychological harm to those who experience or witness violence, challenges in staff recruitment and retention, and reduced job satisfaction. In 2022, an estimated 16,990 workers in hospitals had a violence-related nonfatal occupational injury or illness that required days away from work. Another study estimated 8,740 hospital workers had days of required restricted work activity or job transfer due to violence-related occupational injury or illness.”