Iowa City, Iowa — Nearly two-thirds of the aggravated assaults reported on the University of Iowa campus in 2020 happened at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
Mark Bullock is co-director of the university’s public safety department.
The hospital’s CEO has recently called the pandemic an endurance test for health care workers. Bullock says staff shouldn’t have to endure assaults as they care for sick patients and his department has secured space for a Medical Campus Safety Center and will assign four new officers to provide security at the hospital.
The hospital is located at 200 Hawkins Drive in Iowa City, next to Kinnick Stadium. Bullock made his comments while briefing the Iowa Board of Regents on the most recent report on campus crime, which covers calendar year 2020. Stats for THIS year are not yet available. A hospital in Branson, Missouri, recently provided up to 400 staff members with panic buttons on their employee badges after violent attacks against health care workers there tripled in the past year.
