Many front-line hospital workers are subject to physical violence from patients. It’s a bad problem getting worse, according to an article and video on the Boston CBS website.

A recent survey by the International Association for Healthcare Security & Safety found the numbers have jumped 37 percent in the past three years.

Nurses say many hospital managers don’t want to acknowledge the escalating violence against nurses, because then they would have to address it, the article said. Boston-area health system officals disagreed.

“In the past few years, we have rebuilt many of our Emergency Departments to include separate, designated areas for more challenging patients. We have added security personnel and all ED staff, behavioral health staff and security are CPI (Crisis Prevention Institute) trained to de-escalate situations and protect everyone’s safety. We also have a centralized team to identify specialized behavioral health and substance abuse beds so that patients are promptly transferred and receive the urgent care that they need," according to a statement from Steward Health Care. 

Read the article and watch the video.