Prevalence and Characteristics of Violence Against Paramedics in a Single, Canadian Site

Violence against paramedics has been described as a ‘serious public health problem’
but one that remains ‘vastly underreported’, owing to an organizational culture that stigmatizes
reporting–hindering efforts at risk mitigation in addition to creating a gap in research. Leveraging a
novel reporting process developed after extensive stakeholder consultation and embedded within
the electronic patient care record, our objective was to provide a descriptive profile of violence
against paramedics in a single paramedic service in Ontario, Canada. Between 1 February 2021
and 31 January 2023, a total of 374 paramedics in Peel Region (48% of the workforce) generated
941 violence reports, of which 40% documented physical (n = 364) or sexual (n = 19) assault. The
violence was typically perpetrated by patients (78%) and primarily took place at the scene of the 9-1-1
call (47%); however, violent behavior frequently persisted or recurred while in transit to hospital and
after arrival. Collectively, mental health, alcohol, or drug use were listed as contributing circumstances
in 83% of the violence reports. In all, 81 paramedics were physically harmed because of an assault.
On average, our data correspond to a paramedic filing a violence report every 18 h, being physically
assaulted every 46 h, and injured every 9 days.