After reports from EMS personnel raised questions about the frequency of field officer assault by patients, Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services conducted an internal survey. The results showed that the majority of Austin EMS personnel say they’ve been assaulted on the job in the last two years.
“We certainly are being assaulted,” Selena Xie, the president of the Austin EMS Association, said at Monday night’s Public Safety Commission meeting.
Not only are the numbers of assaulted officers high, they are increasing. The results of the survey showed that both medics and communications professionals have been subjected to assault. Ninety-three percent of paramedics report being assaulted at some point in their career and 63 percent reported being assaulted more than once in the last two years.
With no internal reporting system for medics who have been assaulted, she said the survey that was released this month is the only current reported data from the department.