When Patients are Assailants: Valuing Occupational Risks in Health Care

Intentional violence against healthcare workers inflicts a physical and mental toll, motivating legislative proposals to better regulate these occupational risks. This article uses this context to address two novel issues for benefit assessment raised by injuries from assailants: potential heterogeneity in valuation based on the context of the injury risk and possible reductions in self-reported valuations when the exposed population has been trained to feel responsible for the risk. This article presents experimental evidence on workers’ preferences over the form of intervention: protection (risk reduction) or insurance (cost-sharing). The experiment also elicits worker valuations of occupational health care risks, calculating the value of a statistical injury (VSI), based on local wage-risk tradeoffs, in the general range of $200,000. Workers accord a premium to risk reductions that might eliminate the risk of injuries. Both the physical harm and the process by which the injury occurs may affect benefit assessments for the regulation of workplace violence. Non-healthcare participants require a $40,000 premium per expected injury resulting from intentional harm. While health care workers do not generally require such a premium, health care workers in clinical positions require more compensation to face occupational risks. Insurance coverage for monetary losses is more highly valued than protective measures for accidental harms, though there is no significant comparable preference for insurance against intentional harms. The results have important practical implications for addressing the concerning phenomenon of violence against healthcare workers, suggesting that expanding insurance compensation would be desirable, as would assigning an intentionality premium to intentional injuries.