After reports of staff being spit on, cussed out, and in some cases even beaten by patients have tripled over the last year, Cox Medical Center Branson is issuing its staff panic buttons. Violent “repeated” incidents are on the rise across the hospital, and may be partially due to the effects of the pandemic, according to local outlet KY3. ”They come in here and they have to sit in here because everywhere’s full,” a nurse said of the med surge floors. “We have no placements to put anybody, and that’s frustrating on the patient. That’s frustrating on us.” Between 300 and 400 staff will be given panic buttons, which summon security personnel, to affix to their employee badges by the end of the year. Skaggs Foundation staffer Mindy Honey said that the project was “one of the quickest grants we’ve ever funded.”