Inside Family First Pharmacy in York, a robot helps fill prescriptions
The robot can label, fill, cap and sort prescription vials quickly and accurately. See it in action at Family First Pharmacy in York, Nov. 11, 2025.
One of Pennsylvania’s largest health care worker unions is calling on one of the state’s largest hospital systems to take greater measures to enhance workplace safety.
“No healthcare worker should ever fear for their life while caring for others,” reads a public letter to UPMC leaders from SEIU Healthcare. The union represents nurses and health care workers in hospitals, nursing homes, state agencies and in-home caregivers.
The correspondence was issued weeks after a patient care technician was attacked and beaten severely while working at UPMC Altoona in Blair County.
In February, West York Police Officer Andrew Duarte was killed by gunfire at UPMC Memorial Hospital in West Manchester Township during a shootout with a hostage-taker.
That situation unfolded when a man, apparently grieving a loved one who died while undergoing medical treatment, brought a handgun into the facility and held staff at gunpoint.
In a statement highlighting the importance of keeping workers, patients and visitors safe, a UPMC spokesperson detailed measures taken by the hospital system to enhance security.
“Guided by national security experts and ongoing feedback from our teams, we’ve made hundreds of safety upgrades this year including de-escalation and workplace violence prevention training, signage reinforcing our zero-tolerance policy, panic buttons, secure rooms, active drills, expanded public safety and police officer presence, limited access points and additional entrance technologies such as metal detectors,” the statement read.
Officials with SEIU did not respond to an email from The York Dispatch asking if workers would be willing to strike over lax or poor safety standards in health care facilities.
Calling workplace violence a crisis, SEIU officials listed six things UPMC and every health system in Pennsylvania should do, like requiring mandatory de-escalation training for workers and ensuring safe staffing levels to make sure workers are not left alone.
“Every single health system in Pennsylvania must rise to the occasion and in particular we are calling on UPMC, as our largest health system with the most resources, to lead the way in setting standards,” SEIU’s letter reads.
In its statement, UPMC said it is “committed to listening, improving and protecting our people. Any claim suggesting otherwise ignores the significant progress we’ve made and continue to make alongside our team members.”
There has been a recent push in Pennsylvania for workplace safety for health care workers. Another health care worker union, PASNAP, has lobbied for House Bill 926, The Healthcare Workplace Violence Prevention Act.
The legislation proposed by Democrat Leanne Krueger would require hospitals to establish violence prevention committees, perform annual risk assessments and protect employees from retaliation for reporting violence. It passed the House in May but stalled in the Senate’s Labor and Industry Committee.
Every York County House Republican voted against the bill that would impose fines and administrative penalties for not meeting certain standards like reporting requirements for incidents.
State Rep. Mike Jones, a Republican from York Township, told The York Dispatch the bill mandates regulations that are already adopted by most hospitals and do not reduce workplace violence.
Jones said the bill would unnecessarily add cost to health care and insert the state Department of Labor into an arena that is already sufficiently regulated by the federal government, including OSHA, and the state Department of Health.
“This is just another feel-good government overkill bill that does little more than create additional regulations,” he said.
Carol Hill-Evans, York County’s lone Democrat in the House, was the only York County representative to support it. She could not be reached for comment.
Messages left with Republican state Reps. Seth Grove, Kate Klunk, Wendy Fink and Marc Anderson were not immediately returned.
A Republican-sponsored measure, the Health Care Facility Threat Assessment Grant Program, was discussed in a June memo, but there is no legislation attached to a proposal for making a grant program for hospitals in the state to get money to conduct on-site threat assessments and make safety-enhancing changes.
When that was floated in June, Jones said he does not “get too worked up” over co-sponsor memos and new bills until they at least get out of committee.
— Reach Mark Walters at mwalters@yorkdispatch.com.