BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1299
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Date of Hearing: August 6, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 1299 (Padilla) - As Amended: June 5, 2014
Policy Committee: HealthVote:14-5
Labor Vote: 5-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Division of Occupational Safety and
Health (Cal/OSHA) of the Department of Industrial Relations
(DIR) to adopt standards, and requires hospitals to take
specific actions related to assessing, reporting, training, and
planning and policy development, to address violence and threats
of violence against employees and others. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Requires Cal/OSHA to adopt standards as follows:
a) Requiring hospitals to adopt a workplace violence
prevention plan. Prescribes its elements, as well as
specified safety and security policies.
b) Requiring hospitals to document and keep for five years
a written record of all violent incidents against a
hospital employee, and to report incidents to the Cal/OSHA.
c) Requiring all health care workers who provide direct
care to patients to receive annual workplace violence
prevention education and training.
1)Provides hospitals may not prevent an employee from, or take
punitive or retaliatory action against an employee for,
seeking assistance and intervention from local emergency
services or law enforcement for a violent incident.
2)Exempts hospitals operated by the State Department of State
Hospitals, the State Department of Developmental Services, or
the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from the
bill's requirements.
FISCAL EFFECT
SB 1299
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1)One-time costs to Cal/OSHA of $350,000 over two years to
develop regulations, and to establish a reporting system
(Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Fund).
2)Ongoing costs to Cal/OSHA of approximately $180,000 (OSH fund)
annually to collect and evaluate newly reportable criminal
assaults, to ensure compliance with safety and training
standards, and to compile incidents and report to the
Legislature.
3)Cost pressure to the University of California's five medical
centers (special funds) in the hundreds of thousands of
dollars annually associated with new training requirements of
direct care staff.
4)Cost pressure to the state (GF/federal/special) and other
purchasers of health care by raising the total cost of
hospital care by millions of dollars statewide annually, due
to new security training requirements of direct care staff not
currently required to receive this training. Even using
fairly conservative assumptions, overall statewide costs
associated with the mandate for extra training could exceed
$10 million annually, a portion of which the state would
indirectly bear.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the author, violence in health care
settings has been an area of concern for some time, as risk of
workplace violence is a serious occupational hazard for
Registered Nurses (RNs) and other health care workers. The
sponsor of this bill, the California Nurses Association (CNA),
maintains the incidence of violence against RNs and other
health care workers calls into question the adequacy of
existing safety and security standards. According to CNA,
this bill will improve the safety and security of RNs and
other health care workers throughout the state.
2)Current Cal/OSHA Petitions . CNA and SEIU Local 121/RN/SEIU
Nurse Alliance of California filed petitions in February of
this year to the Cal/OSHA Standards Board, seeking the
creation of workplace violence prevention standards for
healthcare workers. Both petitions were granted in June. The
Board's memo granting the petitions requests Cal/OSHA to
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develop a consensus rulemaking proposal addressing workplace
violence protection standards for consideration by the public
and the Board, to convene an advisory committee for the
rulemaking process, and to consider updating various
guidelines they have developed on the issue of workplace
safety.
3)Opposition . The California Hospital Association (CHA) opposes
this bill unless substantial amendments are taken to align
with existing law and remove the mandate to train all
personnel, among other changes. CHA indicates this bill is
inconsistent with existing law requiring hospitals to adopt a
safety and security plan and it unreasonably usurps Cal/OSHA's
stakeholder process for developing regulations, which is
currently underway. Further, CHA contends the requirement
that all direct patient care employees receive training is a
significant unfunded mandate. The Department of Finance also
opposes this bill.
4)Prior Legislation . SB 718 (Yee) of 2013 was substantially
similar to this bill. SB 718 was amended to remove some of
the bill's substantive provisions as the bill left the
Suspense File of this committee, and was later placed on the
Inactive File on the Assembly Floor.
AB 30 (Hayashi) of 2011 was substantially similar to this
bill, but placed requirements in the Health and Safety Code
with the California Department of Public Health responsible
for enforcement. AB 30 was held on the Suspense File of this
committee.
5)Staff Comment . The standards this bill requires the board to
adopt appear quite prescriptive. Given the Cal/OSHA
regulatory process is now underway to address the same
concerns as this bill, the Committee may wish to consider how
to reconcile this bill and the regulatory process in order to
ensure cost-efficient administration of any health care
workplace safety requirements.
Analysis Prepared by : Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916) 319-2081