Healthcare workers dedicate their lives to protecting others, yet too many walk to and from work without adequate protection themselves. After the tragic murder of healthcare worker Ada Doss while leaving work at DCH Health System, it is clear that cameras and policies alone are not enough.

This proposal for Ada’s Law has now been formally submitted to Kay Ivey. We are urgently asking Governor Ivey and Alabama legislators to act quickly and pass this law before another healthcare worker loses their life simply trying to make it home.

Please read, sign, and share.

 

 

To: Kay Ivey

State of Alabama

 

Subject: Request for State Legislation, “Ada’s Law”

 

Governor Ivey,

 

I am writing as an anonymous registered nurse employed by DCH Health System who has served in emergency medicine in Alabama. I am writing not only as a nurse, but as a wife, mother, healthcare worker, and someone who is grieving alongside coworkers, friends, and an entire community after the tragic murder of my coworker, Ada Doss, in the parking area of DCH Health System while walking to her vehicle after work.

 

Ada showed up to serve others. She should have made it home.

 

Instead, a healthcare worker who dedicated her life to caring for the people of Alabama was violently taken while simply trying to leave work and go home to her family.

 

I am asking you, our legislators, and the State of Alabama to act now by introducing and passing “Ada’s Law,” legislation designed to protect healthcare workers across our state.

 

Ada was murdered in the afternoon, in broad daylight. This tragedy proves that employee safety is not only a night-shift issue. Daylight did not protect her. Cameras did not protect her. Policies on paper did not protect her.

 

Healthcare workers need real protection.

 

Proposed Requirements of Ada’s Law

 

Under Ada’s Law, all hospitals, healthcare systems, emergency departments, outpatient facilities, and licensed healthcare institutions in Alabama would be required to provide:

 

1. Secured Employee Parking

 

•            Employee parking lots and employee parking decks must be fenced, gated, or structurally secured.

•            Access must be restricted through employee badge entry, credential verification, or equivalent controlled access.

•            Public access to employee parking areas must be prohibited unless physically separated.

 

2. Protected Employee Parking Decks

 

•            All employee parking decks must include badge-only access.

•            Stairwells and elevators must be secured.

•            Emergency call stations must be installed on every level.

•            Decks must be actively monitored in real time.

 

3. Mandatory Security Escorts for All Shifts

 

•            Escort services must be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

•            Escorts must be available for morning, afternoon, evening, night, weekend, and holiday shifts.

•            No employee may be denied an escort based on time of day, staffing, or perceived risk.

 

4. Armed, Professionally Trained Security

 

•            Licensed, professionally trained security officers must be present at all times.

•            Security personnel must actively patrol parking lots, decks, sidewalks, and employee walkways during shift changes and throughout the day.

 

5. Lighting and Visibility Standards

 

•            All employee parking areas, sidewalks, entrances, stairwells, and pedestrian paths must be well lit at all times.

•            Blind spots, overgrown landscaping, and unsafe visual obstructions must be eliminated.

 

6. Emergency Protection Systems

 

•            Blue-light emergency stations, panic buttons, or mobile emergency alert systems must be readily accessible throughout employee parking areas.

 

7. Protection from Unsafe Remote Parking

 

•            Healthcare workers should never be forced to park long distances away and walk alone through unsecured areas when safer options can be provided.

 

8. Annual State Safety Audits

 

•            Facilities should undergo annual compliance inspections by the Alabama Department of Public Health or designated authority.

 

9. Whistleblower Protection

 

•            Employees who report unsafe conditions must be protected from retaliation.

 

Governor Ivey, healthcare workers spend our lives protecting others. We run toward emergencies. We care for strangers on the worst days of their lives. The least we should expect is to make it safely back to our cars and home to our families.

 

Ada Doss should still be here.

 

Please help ensure her death was not in vain. Please help make Ada’s Law a reality in Alabama.

 

Respectfully,

 

An Anonymous Registered Nurse Employed by DCH Health System

On behalf of healthcare workers across Alabama

 

“Daylight did not protect her. Cameras did not protect her. Ada’s Law will.”