HR 1309 - A Federal Call to Action on Workplace Violence in Healthcare, Maybe
by Paul Perryman, MSN, MS, RN, NE-BC
With 70% of all injuries related to workplace violence occurring in health care and social services settings as of 2016, is government regulation needed to keep health care and social services workers safe?
On November 21, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act which would require operationalizing new safety standards on the part of "covered facilities" and "covered services" identified in this act.
This bill is the brain child of Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin who worked with House Representative Joe Courtney of Connecticut to sponsor this bill in the House of Representatives. Although some Republican support exists for this bill in the House, it was only slightly bipartisan and is now referred to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions where it may likely stay given the current political climate in the U.S. Congress.
Even still, the health care industry must consider that if the political climate changes and H.R. 1309 passes in the Senate and becomes law, the impact would be significant affecting 6,210 hospitals across the country as well as the countless other services falling under the "covered services" and "covered facilities" portion of this law, such as home health care and emergency services/transport.
If passed, covered facilities and services will have 6 months from promulgation of this law to begin implementation of the final standards set forth by the Secretary of Labor. This will be no small feat given the requirements proposed, including reporting violent incidents, implementing engineering controls, and post-incident investigations and plans for correction.
Taking into account the very real possibility this legislation might be a part of health care's external environment in the not too distant future, facilities covered under this act would be wise to begin working to include the development of Workplace Violence Programs in their 5 year strategic plans beginning now.
References
House Bill 1309 Text: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1309/text
Workplace Violence Legislation Moves Forward: https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/nursing/workplace-violence-legislation-moves-forward
What the New House Bill on Workplace Violence Prevention Would Mean for Health Care Workers: https://www.newsweek.com/hr1309-legislation-workplace-violence-prevention-health-care-workers-1473697
Senator Tammy Baldwin Website: https://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/house-approves-workplace-violence-prevention-bill
U.S. Government Accountability Office Office: https://www.gao.gov/assets/680/675858.pdf
American Hospital Association, Fast Facts on U.S. Hospitals, 2019: https://www.aha.org/statistics/fast-facts-us-hospitals
A reader asked me a question about what appears to be a discrepancy between my post and the Newsweek's reference to a summary statement regarding the timeframe an employer has to develop and implement their plan. My response below is a result of my reading of the bill so if anyone has any interesting input, I would love to hear it.
ReplyDelete“I reread the parts of HR 1309 including timeframes. It states that the Secretary of Labor (SOL) has 1 year to develop an interim final workplace violence standard, 2 years to propose a final workplace violence prevention standard and 3.5 years to promulgate to the final standard with the starting point being the enactment of the law.
The law also states that "Not later than 6 months after the date of promulgation of the interim final standard under section 101(a), a covered employer shall develop, implement, and maintain an effective written workplace violence prevention plan for covered employees at each covered facility and for covered employees performing a covered service on behalf of such employer, which meets the following:"
If I am reading this correctly, within the first year, the SOL will post the interim final workplace violence prevention standard and within 6 months of that an employer should have their written plan in place. It is implied that employers should be working on their plans throughout this first year as the law also requires the SOL to provide resources to covered facilities during that first year. Then 2 years after this first 1.5 year window everything must be finalized and officially implemented. Of course this is all theoretical at this point but this exercise may be helpful should some version of this pass in the future.”