(Radio Iowa) -A top administrator in one of Iowa’s leading health care systems says the safety of staff is becoming a concern. Scott Curtis is vice president of network development for MercyOne. “We aren’t that much unlike what we hear about in the airline industry, for example, certainly law enforcement,” Curtis says, “but our health care workers are continually put in situations that are not safe and that’s a challenge.” An Iowa Hospital Association survey found hospitals in the state reported nearly 37-hundred incidents of what it classified as workplace violence last year. That includes verbal threats as well as being kicked, punched and scratched.

Curtis recently discussed the issue with U-S Senator Joni Ernst during her visit to a MercyOne clinic in Forest City. “We continue to talk with the senator and other representatives about the type of laws that we could put in place that would heighten the ramifications to folks that bring harm to our workers,” he says. Nearly 40 states have laws with enhanced penalties for assaults on health care workers. A recent report from a company that surveys patients and employees throughout the country found nearly 17-thousand assaults on nursing staff in U-S hospitals were reported last year. That’s a record.