Requires hospitals to establish a violence prevention program which includes a workplace safety and security assessment and develop a safety and security plan that addresses identified workplace violence threats or hazards.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A203A
SPONSOR: Cruz TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to requiring hospi-
tals to develop a violence prevention program
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To require hospitals and nursing homes to establish a violence
prevention protection program including the establishment of security
personnel in hospital emergency departments to protect from violence and
verbal and physical abuse of doctors, nurses and staff who provide crit-
ical medical care in such emergency departments.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill requires hospitals to establish a violence
prevention program to require:
*each hospital shall create such program consistent with the workplace
violence standards approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services and standards established by the Joint Commission on Health
Care Organizations;
*general hospitals located in a city or county with a population of one
million or more shall be required to have at least one-off duty law
enforcement officer or trained security personnel be present at all
times in the emergency department with consideration of emergent circum-
stance in any hospital; and
*General hospitals located in a city or county with a population less
than one million shall be required to have at least one off-duty law
enforcement officer or trained security personnel on premises at all
times in a manner that prioritizes physical presence near, or within
close proximity to, the emergency department of such hospital with
direct responsibility to the emergency department. This shall not apply
to hospitals designated as a critical access hospitals, sole community
hospitals, or rural emergency hospitals. However, if any such hospital
experiences increased rates of violence, as determined by the commis-
sioner of health, or abuse of emergency department personnel evidenced
by internal reporting pursuant to the violence prevention program or
reports to law enforcement the commissioner shall work with the critical
access hospital, sole community hospital, or rural emergency hospital to
come into compliance with the requirement, to have at least one off-duty
law enforcement officer or trained security personnel on premises at all
times in a manner that prioritizes physical presence near, or within
close proximity to, the emergency department of such hospital with
direct responsibility to the emergency department, over a reasonable
period of time.
JUSTIFICATION:
Physicians, Nurses, and other healthcare employees are exposed on a
daily basis to the potential of assault or other violent situations in
the course of their duties.
Assault on the job is one of the most frequent causes of serious inju-
ries in the healthcare industry, and violence is a more common cause of
injury than in other industries. U.S. healthcare workers suffer thou-
sands of workplace violence-related injuries every year that require
time away from work for treatment and recovery (i.e., serious injuries).
In a 2022 American College of Emergency Physicians survey of E.R.
doctors, 55 percent said they had been physically assaulted, almost all
by patients, with a third of those resulting in injuries. 85 percent had
been seriously threatened by patients. The risks can be even higher for
E.R. nurses, with over 70 percent reporting they had sustained physical
assaults at work.
The 2022 American College of Emergency Physicians survey further found
that the incidences of workplace violence in emergency departments
contributed to staff shortages due to staff injury, emotional trauma,
and anxiety, As well as increased wait times for patients and delay of
critical medical care.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A.4848 of 2020
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect two hundred and seventy days after it shall
have become a law.
