From 2019 to 2020, assaults on hospital staff by patients tripled at Cox Medical Center in Branson, Mo. Now personal panic buttons are being implemented to alert hospital security more easily.
About a quarter of U.S. health care workers have refused the COVID-19 vaccine as of July. They share demographic traits with other unvaccinated people and are putting hospitals in a tough spot.
Compared to last spring, there's more clinical knowledge about how to treat COVID-19, and bigger stockpiles of protective equipment. But nurses worry about staffing shortages as patient numbers grow.
