BILL NUMBER: AB 1136 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 26, 2011
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 6, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Swanson
FEBRUARY 18, 2011
An act to add Section 6403.5 to the Labor Code, relating to
employment safety.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1136, as amended, Swanson. Employment safety: health
facilities.
Existing law regulates the operation of health facilities.
Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of
1973, establishes certain safety and other responsibilities of
employers and employees, including the requirement that employers
provide safety devices or and
safeguards reasonably necessary to render the employment safe.
This bill would make findings and declarations concerning the
lifting, repositioning, and transfer of patients in acute care
hospitals and resulting injuries to hospital personnel.
This bill would require an employer to have
develop and maintain a safe patient handling policy ,
as defined, for patient care units, to develop an
a patient protection and health care worker back and
musculoskeletal injury prevention plan, and to provide trained
lift teams , as defined, or staff trained in safe lifting
techniques in each general acute care hospital. The safe patient
handling policy would require the replacement of manual
lifting and transferring of patients with powered patient transfer
devices, lifting devices, or lift teams, as specified. Each
By January 1, 2013, each hospital would
be responsible for developing its own needs assessment policy to
determine whether a patient lift, reposition, or transfer requires
the use of a lift team or powered lifting device , as
part of the injury and prevention program that it is required by
existing regulations to establish, implement, and maintain,
be required to develop a written safe patient handling policy
and purchase enough safe handling equipment to eliminate the need to
conduct manual patient handling and transfers .
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. This act shall be known and cited as the Hospital
Patient and Health Care Worker Injury Protection Act.
SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(a) In 2008, there were 36,130 occupational musculoskeletal
disorder (MSD) cases in private industry where the source of injury
or illness was a health care patient or resident of a health care
facility. This accounted for 11 percent of the 317,440 total cases of
MSDs that resulted in a least one lost day from work in 2008. Almost
all (98 percent) of the cases involving patient handling occurred
within the health care and social assistance industry, composing 55
percent of the 64,300 total MSD cases in that industry.
(b) For MSD cases involving patient handling, almost all (99
percent) were the result of overexertion. A sprain, strain, or tear
was the type of injury that was incurred in 84 percent of the MSD
cases involving patient handling.
(c) Nursing aides, orderlies and attendants incurred occupational
injuries or illnesses in 52 percent of the MSD cases involving health
care patients. Registered nurses accounted for 16 percent and home
health aides for another 6 percent. Other occupations with MSD cases
involving health care patients included licensed practical and
licensed vocational nurses; emergency medical technicians and
paramedics; personal and home care aides; health care support
workers; radiologic technologists and technicians; and medical and
health services managers.
(d) Over 12 percent of the nursing workforce leaves the bedside
due to back injuries each year. California's nursing workforce is
aging at the same time patient acuity and obesity is rising. It is
imperative that we protect our registered nurses and other health
care workers from injury, and provide patients with safe and
appropriate care. At a cost of between sixty thousand dollars
($60,000) and one-hundred forty thousand dollars ($140,000) to train
and orient each new nurse, preventing turnover from injuries will
save hospitals money.
SEC. 3. Section 6403.5 is added to the Labor Code, to read:
6403.5. (a) An employer shall maintain a safe patient handling
policy at all times for all patient care units once the policy
is developed pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (f) , and
shall provide trained lift teams or other support staff trained in
safe lifting techniques in each general acute care hospital. The
employer shall provide training to health care workers on all of the
following:
(1) The appropriate use of lifting devices and equipment.
(2) The five areas of body exposure: vertical, lateral, bariatric,
repositioning, and ambulation.
(3) The use of lifting devices to handle patients safely.
(b) As the coordinator of care, the registered nurse shall be
responsible for the observation and direction of patient lifts and
mobilization, and shall participate as needed in patient handling in
accord with the nurse's job description.
(c) For purposes of this section, "lift team" means hospital
employees specifically trained to handle patient lifts,
repositionings, and transfers using patient transfer, repositioning,
or lifting devices as appropriate for the specific patient.
(c)
(d) For the purposes of this chapter
section , " safe patient handling policy" means a policy
that requires replacement of manual lifting and transferring of
patients with powered patient transfer devices, lifting devices, or
lift teams, consistent with the employer's safety policies and the
professional judgment and clinical assessment of the registered
nurse.
(d)
(e) As part of the injury and illness prevention
programs required by Section 3203 of Title 8 of the California Code
of Regulations, or any successor law or regulation, employers shall
adopt a patient protection and health care worker back and
musculoskeletal injury prevention plan. The plan shall include a safe
patient handling policy component reflected in professional
occupational safety guidelines for the protection of patients and
health care workers in health care facilities.
(e)
(f) Included in the injury and illness prevention
programs, each general acute care hospital shall develop its
own individual lift, repositioning, and transfer needs assessment to
determine if a patient requires the use of a lift team and
specialized equipment for patient lifts, repositioning, and
transfers.
(f) Patients identified as being at risk of injury due to a lift,
repositionings, or transfer, as well as patient lifts,
repositionings, or transfers identified, using the individual
hospital's own needs assessment, as having potential for placing
health care workers at risk of being injured while lifting,
repositioning, or transferring a patient, shall require a lift team
or specialized equipment to lift, reposition, or transfer the
patient.
(g) For patients not at risk for injury due to a lift,
repositioning, or transfer, and patient lifts, repositionings, or
transfers identified, using the individual hospital's own needs
assessment, as having little or no potential for placing health care
workers at risk of being injured, a lift team or specialized
equipment to lift, reposition, or transfer the patient shall not be
required. do all of the following:
(1) By January 1, 2013, develop a written safe patient handling
policy.
(2) By January 1, 2013, purchase enough safe patient handling
equipment to eliminate the need to conduct manual patient handling
and transfers.
(3) If a manual lift has to be used, document when and why it had
to be used.
(h)
(g) Lift team members may perform other duties as
assigned during their shift.
(i)
(h) A health care worker who refuses to lift,
reposition, or transfer a patient due to concerns about patient and
worker safety and the lack of trained lift team personnel or
equipment shall not, based upon the refusal, be the subject of
disciplinary action by the hospital or any of its managers or
employees.