By Todd Conway, CEO, Autoclear
Emergency departments treat gunshot wounds every day. Increasingly, they also become the scene of the violence itself.
The American College of Emergency Physicians surveyed its members in 2024 and found that 91% had experienced workplace violence in the prior year. Across the healthcare sector, that adds up to an estimated 2.5 million workplace violence incidents annually. Federal labor data tells a similar story: healthcare workers account for 73% of all nonfatal workplace violence injuries in the United States, despite making up only about 10% of the workforce. Between 2011 and 2022, general hospitals saw a 158% increase in violence-related injuries. Nursing assistants and psychiatric aides face some of the highest injury rates of any occupation in the country.
Hospitals, clinics, and emergency rooms sit at an uncomfortable intersection. They must stay open to anyone who walks through the door, including people in crisis, under the influence, or armed, while protecting staff, patients, and visitors from harm. Unlike an airport or courthouse, a hospital entrance can’t simply close its doors to screen everyone who arrives; care can’t wait. That tension is why weapons incidents in healthcare settings keep making headlines, from assaults on nurses to shootings in emergency departments and parking lots.
Regulators have taken notice. California led the way with AB 2975, signed in September 2024. The law requires every general acute care and psychiatric hospital in the state to install automated weapons detection systems, not handheld wands, at three locations: the main public entrance, the emergency department entrance, and labor and delivery. Cal/OSHA must finalize implementation standards by March 1, 2027, after which hospitals get 90 days to comply. Staff who operate the equipment need at least eight hours of training covering the technology, response protocols, de-escalation, and implicit bias.
Other states are addressing the same problem through different levers. North Carolina now requires a police officer stationed in emergency rooms. Pennsylvania and Virginia have moved on their own hospital security and workplace violence measures. More states are expected to follow as the data on healthcare violence keeps climbing.
Funding is starting to catch up with the mandates. FEMA’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program has roughly $300 million available for fiscal year 2026, and the State Homeland Security Grant Program directed over $373 million to states in fiscal year 2025. A number of states, including California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Florida, and Massachusetts, run their own security grant programs that public and nonprofit hospitals can tap for detection equipment, training, and related upgrades.
For hospital administrators and security directors, the message is clear. The question is no longer whether to screen for weapons at healthcare entry points; it’s how to do it without turning a hospital lobby into a bottleneck, and how to pay for it.
How Autoclear helps healthcare facilities meet the moment
Autoclear has designed, manufactured, and supported security inspection systems for more than 30 years, serving law enforcement, corrections, schools, transportation, and critical infrastructure customers. Our automated X-ray, backscatter, trace detection, and metal detection systems are built for exactly the challenge hospitals now face: screening high volumes of people quickly, without wands or pat-downs, at price points and footprints that fit real-world lobbies and ER entrances. As a GSA Schedule holder with decades of deployment experience in high-traffic, high-stakes environments, Autoclear can help healthcare facilities meet AB 2975 and similar requirements while keeping care accessible. Contact us to talk through your facility’s screening needs.
Sources: American College of Emergency Physicians (2024 member survey); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; California Assembly Bill 2975 (Labor Code §6401.9); FEMA Nonprofit Security Grant Program and State Homeland Security Grant Program, FY2025-2026 allocations.
