After years of declining violence, patients at Washington hospitals are now attacking staff at the highest rate in a decade, according to an article on The Seattle Times website.
This is while reports of attacks on other patients have generally gone down.
The increase coincides with a spike in the rate of patients who, after being charged with crimes, were found not competent to stand trial.
Hospital officials dispute a connection between the two trends. They blame the uptick in violence on a younger and increasingly troubled patient population.
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