What are states up to? Since the stated intent of the Trump administration is to have the states be the primary regulators and enforcers of environment, safety, and health (EHS) laws, what states are doing will be a recurring theme in the Advisor. With that in mind, we will take a look at a new standard out of California that addresses violence in healthcare workplaces.
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Effective April 1, 2017, California will be the first state to require all healthcare facilities to implement protective measures for workers who may be exposed to violence.
A Little Background
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the healthcare and social assistance sector includes industries with the highest rates for “Intentional Injury by Other Persons,” exceeding all other private sector industries.
In the healthcare and social assistance sectors, 14 percent of days away from work were the result of violence in 2015.
According to a 2015 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) report, the most commonly reported form of violence in health care is from the disruptive patient or patient’s family member. In 2013, healthcare workers reported an estimated 9,200 workplace violence incidents requiring time away from work to recover, with the majority of these perpetrated by patients or their family members. This represents 67 percent of all nonfatal violence-related injuries from an industry that only represents 11.5 percent of all workers.
Who’s Covered Under California’s New Standard?
You will be required to implement the provisions of California’s new standard to prevent violence in health care if you are a(n):
- Health facility, e.g., hospital, out-patient clinic, off-site operations within the license of a health facility;
- Home health care and home-based hospice;
- Emergency medical service and medical transport, including these services when provided by firefighters and other emergency responders;
- Drug treatment program; or
- Outpatient medical service for prisoners.
What You Have to Do Now
There are six key provisions to California’s new standard. Three of them are required to be in place this coming April 1, 2017.
- All covered facilities are required to have a Violent Incident Log, in which every incident, postincident response, and workplace violence injury investigation performed will be required to be recorded.
- All covered facilities are required to keep the following records:
- Workplace violence hazard identification, evaluation, and correction (1 year).
- Training records, including training dates, contents or a summary of the training sessions, names and qualifications of persons conducting the training, and names and job titles of all persons attending the training sessions (1 year).
- Violent incidents, including but not limited to, violent incident logs, reports required by specific facilities, and workplace violence injury investigations (5 years).
- General acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and special hospitals (i.e., dental or maternity) have additional reporting requirements that concern the use of physical force or dangerous weapons even if no employee is injured.
Key Takeaway for EHS Managers
Since there will be little or no guidance from the feds, it will also make state regulators even more likely to be influenced by what other states are up to. That’s why standards developed by states such as California could be important to the regulated community in other states. They may look appealing to your state safety or environmental agency.
Make sure that you are in touch with your state safety agency and be aware of when regulations or standards are going to be developed or revised. You need to comment on pending state actions and make sure that your voice is heard.
Tune into tomorrow’s Advisor for a review of the other three key elements of California’s new standard for preventing violence in healthcare facilities that are due to kick in a year from now.