BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 1299 (Padilla) - Workplace: Violence Prevention Plans
Amended: March 25, 2014 Policy Vote: L&IR 4-1, Health
5-1
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 12, 2014 Consultant: Robert Ingenito
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 1299 would require the Department of Industrial
Relation's Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA)
to adopt standards that require hospitals, as defined, to adopt
a workplace violence prevention plan.
Fiscal Impact:
The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) would incur
costs of $375,000 in the first year and $268,000 ongoing
(Occupational Safety and Health Fund), related to (1)
information technology costs for the internet-based portal
reporting requirement, and (2) additional rulemaking.
Potential ongoing costs in the hundreds of thousands per
year for training direct care staff in state hospitals
(General Fund).
Unknown costs for training direct care staff in hospitals
operated by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
(General Fund).
Background: Under the California Labor Code, employers are
required to implement injury prevention plans, which address
issues of worker safety in the workplace. Current law requires
employers to report certain occupational injuries or illnesses
to the Cal/OSHA division within DIR. Workplace safety laws and
regulations are enforced by Cal/OSHA.
Under the California Health and Safety Code, licensed hospitals
are required to develop security plans to protect hospital
staff, patients, and visitors from injury. Required safety plans
must address specified issues. All hospital employees regularly
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assigned to an emergency department are required to receive
annual training on safety procedures. Certain violent acts
against hospital personnel must be reported to local law
enforcement. These requirements are enforced by the Department
of Public Health.
Proposed Law: SB 1299 would require the Occupational Safety and
Health Standards Board (Standards Board), no later than July 1,
2015, to adopt standards developed by Cal/OSHA that require
specified hospitals to adopt a workplace violence prevention
plan. Specifically, the bill would do the following:
Require the Standards Board, no later than July 1, 2015,
to adopt standards developed by Cal/OSHA that require a
general acute care hospital, acute psychiatric hospital, or
a special hospital, as defined, to adopt a workplace
violence prevention plan as a part of its injury and
illness prevention plan to protect health care workers and
other facility personnel from aggressive and violent
behavior.
Require the adopted standards on workplace violence
prevention plans to include a requirement that the
workplace violence prevention plan be in effect at all
times in all patient care units, including inpatient and
outpatient settings and clinics on the hospital's license.
Require the adopted standards to include a definition of
workplace violence that includes, but is not limited to,
the use of physical force against a hospital employee by a
patient or a person accompanying a patient that has a high
likelihood of resulting in injury, psychological trauma, or
stress, and an incident involving the use of a firearm or
other dangerous weapon, regardless of whether the employee
sustains an injury.
Require the adopted standards for workplace violence
prevention plans to include, but not be limited to, all of
the following:
o Personnel education and training policies that
require health care workers who provide direct care to
patients to receive annual education and training that
is designed to provide an opportunity for interactive
questions and answers with a person knowledgeable
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about the workplace violence prevention plan, and that
covers topics such as how to recognize the potential
for violence, how to report violent incidents to law
enforcement, and any resources available to employees
for coping with incidents of violence, as specified;
o A system for responding to, and investigating,
violent incidents and situations involving violence or
the risk of violence; and,
o A system to annually assess and improve upon
factors that may contribute to, or help prevent,
workplace violence, including staffing patterns and
patient classification systems that contribute to the
risk of violence, sufficiency of security systems, and
job design, equipment and facilities.
Require that all workplace violence prevention plans be
developed in conjunction with affected employees, including
their recognized collective bargaining agents, if any.
Require that all temporary personnel be oriented to the
workplace violence prevention plan.
Require workplace violence prevention plans to include
provisions prohibiting hospitals from disallowing an
employee from, or taking punitive or retaliatory action
against an employee for, seeking assistance and
intervention from local emergency services or law
enforcement when a violent incident occurs.
Require that hospitals document, and retain for a period
of five years, a written record of any violent incident
against a hospital employee, regardless of whether the
employee sustains an injury, and regardless of whether the
report is made by the employee who is the subject of the
violent incident or any other employee.
Require hospitals to report violent incidents to
Cal/OSHA within 24 hours if the incident results in injury,
involves the use of a firearm or other dangerous weapon, or
presents an urgent or emergent threat to the health or
safety of hospital personnel. Require all other violent
incidents to be reported to Cal/OSHA within 72 hours.
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Require Cal/OSHA, by January 1, 2017, and annually
thereafter, to post a report on its Internet Web site, in a
manner that protects confidentiality, information regarding
violent incidents at hospitals, including the total number
of reports, which specific hospitals filed reports, the
outcome of any related inspection or investigation, the
citations levied against a hospital based on a violent
incident, and recommendations of Cal/OSHA on the prevention
of violent incidents at hospitals.
Related Legislation:
SB 718 (Yee, 2013) was similar to this bill, and would
have directed all hospitals, as part of their required
Injury and Illness Prevention Program, to adopt a Workplace
Violence Prevention plan designed to protect health care
workers and others from aggressive or violent behavior;
however, that bill did not have the requirement that
Cal/OSHA develop standards and that the Standards Board
adopt these by a prescribed date. The bill was placed on
the Assembly inactive file.
AB 30 (Hayashi, 2011) was similar to this bill. However,
that bill would have placed similar requirements in the
Health and Safety Code and would have placed additional
requirements on correctional facilities. The bill was held
in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Staff Comments: Many of the requirements in this bill are
similar to existing requirements in the Health and Safety Code,
which with hospitals are already required to comply.
However, this bill requires all medical staff and health care
workers who provide direct patient care to receive training at
least annually, whereas current law (in the Health and Safety
Code) only requires annual training for emergency department
staff. This expansion of training requirements is likely to have
a significant impact on hospital training requirements.
The Department of State Hospitals and the Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation operate many licensed hospitals.
Staff estimates that if the bill requires an additional hour of
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staff training for direct care staff, the Department of State
Hospitals will likely incur additional training costs in the
hundreds of thousands per year.
The only costs that may be incurred by a local agency relate to
crimes and infractions. Such costs are not reimbursable by the
state under the California Constitution.