Nurses Stabbed at 2 Los Angeles Hospitals

Authorities are looking to improve hospital workplace safety after two nurses were stabbed at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
Published: April 23, 2014

LOS ANGELES – Authorities are looking for ways to improve hospital workplace safety after two nurses were attacked in two separate incidents at different medical centers here.

In one of the incidents, Ramiro Canallawas, 26, was able to bypass a weapons screen area at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center with a knife on Sunday. He then allegedly stabbed a nurse multiple times inside the medical facility.

The nurse is currently listed in critical but stable condition.

Officials at Olive View are looking for ways to increase security at the facility.

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Meanwhile, another nurse was injured seven hours later at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center when Thomas Robert Fredette, 38, stabbed a nurse in the ear with a pencil.

The incidents have prompted the California Nurses Association to offer its support to a bill introduced by Sen. Alex Padilla that would require the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to adopt violence prevention plans for health care workers, Los Angeles Daily News reports.

Senate Bill 1299, would require the board to adopt standards requiring hospitals to establish workplace violence prevention plans to protect health care workers and other facility personnel from aggressive and violent behavior. The Senate Labor Committee will hold a hearing on the bill Thursday, April 24.

However, the California Hospital Association opposes the legislation, stating that the current law already requires hospitals to adopt and implement a comprehensive workplace violence prevention plan.

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