Violence against health care workers is happening more frequently and more needs to be done to stop it.

That is the intent behind a bill that passed a House committee Thursday under House Bill 194.

An attack against a person contracted by a hospital like a travel doctor or nurse would be third degree assault.

That expands the current statute, which only protects hospital employees.

The vice president of the Kentucky Hospital Association spoke in favor of the bill, saying attacks against health care workers has reached the point where legislation is needed.

He described some of the violent situations health care workers face.

You know, the violence against our nurses, our doctors, our therapists and the rest of the health care teammates has grown exponentially from abusive language, which is bad enough, but it's spitting and hitting and shoving and threats with weapons.

And so this legislation really does take a step in the right direction toward providing the kind of protection that they need.

You know, if we're going to live in a civilized society, we certainly have to be really working every day to protect those who are on the front lines of restoring health and saving lives.

The bill is so important, none of us can afford to maintain the dangerous situation that we have in our hospitals right now.

And everybody thinks of it in terms of the E.R., But it's not just in the emergency room.

It's all over the hospital, even in labor and delivery.

We've had attacks on nurses, doctors, therapists, right there in labor and delivery.

And we can't we can't continue that way.

Messer told lawmakers the bill would improve the hospital work environment, which in turn would help with the state's shortage of health care workers.

The bill passed unanimously and now heads to the House for a full vote.