NBC News: “A Missouri hospital will be equipping its staff with panic buttons to protect them from violent patients following a startling rise in assaults, administrators said. Cox Medical Center Branson, located about 44 miles from Springfield, said it was implementing the added protection after violent assaults by patients tripled in the last year. According to hospital data, total assaults rose from 40 to 123 and total injuries climbed from 17 to 78. Assaults leading to injury increased from 42.5 percent to 63 percent, according to officials. ‘When Public Safety response is critical and it’s not possible to get to a phone, person panic buttons fill a critical void,’ said Alan Butler, who oversees public safety efforts at CoxHealth’s six hospitals and more than 80 clinics. ‘Personal Panic Buttons (PPBs) are one more tool in the battle to keep our staff safe and further demonstrate this organization’s commitment to maintaining a safe work and care environment.”

“The hospital first began using panic buttons last year in certain areas at Cox South due to incidents of workplace violence. The hospital will now expand the program to hundreds of employees at Cox Medical Center Branson. Nurse Ashley Blevins told NBC affiliate KYTV of Springfield that in the last year staff has been spit on, verbally harassed, and, in some cases, attacked. ‘Working in the emergency department, a lot of times our patients are becoming increasingly violent lately,’ she said. ‘So it’s nice that we have the chance to press our button and security knows exactly where we are. And if we end up having to chase a patient down, they know where our last location is.'”