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Seyfarth Synopsis: New York
requires hospitals and nursing home employers to implement written
workplace violence prevention plans, including hazard assessments,
training, and incident logging within the year.

Health care employers have long faced liabilities relating to
workplace violence, most commonly from patients and visitors.
Although no federal OSHA standards currently provide requirements
for workplace violence in health care (though regulations are in
development), federal OSHA aggressively regulates workplace
violence hazards under its General Duty Clause, creating liability
for health care employers who fail to proactively address hazards
of workplace violence. OSHA provides a range of non-mandatory guidance on workplace violence
prevention, but some states have begun issuing their own laws
to specify requirements for safety programs and security personnel
in health care, including onerous logging and notification
requirements. California OSHA issued a workplace violence
prevention standard applicable to health care in 2018. Connecticut,
Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, and
Washington have enacted other requirements. Other states have
pending requirements, including Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and
Virginia.

New York State has followed suit and has mandated new workplace
violence compliance standards. Governor Hochul recently signed Senate Bill S5294A into law, requiring
hospitals and nursing homes to implement comprehensive workplace
violence prevention plans (WPVPP).

Workplace Violence Prevention Plan
Requirements

The new law applies to general hospitals and nursing homes
regulated under New York’s Public Health Law. Employers must
implement written WPVPPs. Hospitals and nursing homes must
integrate WPVPPs into existing safety and accreditation frameworks.
The WPVPP must include an initial and then a yearly hazard
assessment to identify workplace violence threats and hazards. The
assessment requirement is a performance standard, meaning that
employers will need to employ qualified persons to conduct
comprehensive workplace violence hazards assessments (though the
annual reassessment could be more circumscribed). The employer then
must then use their expertise with their facilities and industry
knowledge to customize and update the WPVPP, as well as implement
enhanced safety controls to address the hazards observed. The
assessment should inform the employer of appropriate security
measures and engineering controls required by the Act (e.g.,
barriers, alarms, communication systems).

The WPVPP must include employee training to identify, prevent,
and mitigate workplace violence. This will include de-escalation
training for disruptive patients and visitors. Emergency rooms are
required to have security personnel onsite, with specific
requirements for off-duty law enforcement or specially trained
security staff. Smaller hospitals face less stringent security
staffing standards, with exemptions for rural and critical access
hospitals.

The law finally requires employers to maintain incident logs and
share data with safety committees and employee representatives.

Employer Action Plan

The law takes effect 280 days after enactment, giving facilities
less than a year to establish programs. Likely reflecting the
political impetus for this statute, the law mandates robust
employee participation in the WPVPP:union representatives must be
included in its development and implementation. Compliance,
including the detailed hazard assessments, will require significant
resources. Facilities may need to budget for enhanced security
personnel, training, and infrastructure improvements.

Takeaway

This legislation underscores New York’s growing focus on
workplace violence prevention expanding into healthcare. Hospitals
and nursing homes should act quickly to align policies, staffing,
and training with the new mandates.

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guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
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