The bills are now laws with the Governor’s approval and will go into effect on March 5.

The laws state that if a person is found guilty of assaulting a health professional or medical volunteer without a weapon, the penalty may be 93 days in jail, a fine of $1,000, or both.

If a person is found guilty of assaulting a health professional or medical volunteer with a weapon, the penalty may be 4 years in jail, a fine of $4,000, or both.

Sue Lennon, director of employee health and wellness, and Sherry Warczynski, manager of regulatory compliance and infection prevention, work in the MyMichigan Health system and are part of the Workplace Violence Committee.

News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Sue Lennon and Sherry Warczynski talk during a Microsoft Teams Meeting on Wednesday.

They both were very excited about the news and thought that the laws would send a positive message to health care workers.

“I think that there’s been a lot of attention brought to it,” Warczynski said. “I think it’s been a lot of health care organizations, you know, kind of fighting for this and saying something needs to be done. I also believe that, if my recollection is correct, (the Michigan Health and Hospital Association) is taking a pretty strong stance on this and they really lobbied for it, as well. So I think it’s a collective effort.”

Lennon agreed, saying that MHA has advocated for health care workers and that some of the association’s sample posters against workplace violence were the inspiration for MyMichigan’s posters with the same message.

Over the last several years, MyMichigan Health facilities, including MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena, have had signs that read ‘assault is not part of our job’ or similar phrases, and included a picture of a nurse with her hand out.

“You know, those were maybe a little controversial by some, but you know, they were very eye-catching,” Lennon said. “When you saw that you would stop and read it. And really, I think that was MHA’s goal as well as ours. We didn’t want a sign that would just blend in with all the other signs because, in health care, we have a lot of signs.”

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, “75 percent of nearly 25,000 workplace assaults reported annually occurred in health care and social service settings.”

Both Lennon and Warczynski said that it’s important to understand that, while a hospital might be an emotionally charged place for patients, it is not okay to take any anger or frustration out on health care workers.

“Everything we do, the cornerstone of what we do, is to provide excellent care for our patients,” Lennon said. “They’re why we’re here. But the second piece of that is that signage with that verbiage on it sends a message to all of our health care workers — that we take this very seriously here at our organization, and with Governor Whitmer signing these bills, it’s taken very seriously.

“We want a safe workplace,” Lennon continued.

Both laws also state that all health facilities must post a sign out for everyone to see that states that if anyone assaults a medical volunteer or health professional, they may be subject to prosecution.

Lennon and Warczynski said posters with the new verbiage will come to all MyMichigan Health facilities soon.