The recent killing of three staff members at a Yountville, Calif., treatment facility by a troubled veteran has placed a spotlight on violence in healthcare facilities, according to an article on the NBC News website.

Serious workplace violence is on average four times more common in healthcare settings Two days a 36-year-old veteran slipped into the Pathway Home in Yountville and held three staffers hostage before killing them and then himself, a congressman from California introduced a bill called the Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention Act.

It calls for OSHA to require health care employers to adopt a comprehensive workplace violence prevention plan.

"Every hospital needs to have a plan to deal with workplace violence and reduce it," said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who introduced the bill. "You may want to make sure that the tables and lamps are locked down so that people can't throw objects at healthcare workers, you may want to make sure that there's a safe exit, enough security, that people aren't bringing weapons of any kind into a medical facility. What the bill does is require that hospitals comply with an OSHA standard."

Read the article.