Senate Bill S5294A<\/a> into law, requiring
\nhospitals and nursing homes to implement comprehensive workplace
\nviolence prevention plans (WPVPP).<\/p>\nWorkplace Violence Prevention Plan
\nRequirements<\/p>\n
The new law applies to general hospitals and nursing homes
\nregulated under New York’s Public Health Law. Employers must
\nimplement written WPVPPs. Hospitals and nursing homes must
\nintegrate WPVPPs into existing safety and accreditation frameworks.
\nThe WPVPP must include an initial and then a yearly hazard
\nassessment to identify workplace violence threats and hazards. The
\nassessment requirement is a performance standard, meaning that
\nemployers will need to employ qualified persons to conduct
\ncomprehensive workplace violence hazards assessments (though the
\nannual reassessment could be more circumscribed). The employer then
\nmust then use their expertise with their facilities and industry
\nknowledge to customize and update the WPVPP, as well as implement
\nenhanced safety controls to address the hazards observed. The
\nassessment should inform the employer of appropriate security
\nmeasures and engineering controls required by the Act (e.g.,
\nbarriers, alarms, communication systems).<\/p>\n
The WPVPP must include employee training to identify, prevent,
\nand mitigate workplace violence. This will include de-escalation
\ntraining for disruptive patients and visitors. Emergency rooms are
\nrequired to have security personnel onsite, with specific
\nrequirements for off-duty law enforcement or specially trained
\nsecurity staff. Smaller hospitals face less stringent security
\nstaffing standards, with exemptions for rural and critical access
\nhospitals.<\/p>\n
The law finally requires employers to maintain incident logs and
\nshare data with safety committees and employee representatives.<\/p>\n
Employer Action Plan<\/p>\n
The law takes effect 280 days after enactment, giving facilities
\nless than a year to establish programs. Likely reflecting the
\npolitical impetus for this statute, the law mandates robust
\nemployee participation in the WPVPP:union representatives must be
\nincluded in its development and implementation. Compliance,
\nincluding the detailed hazard assessments, will require significant
\nresources. Facilities may need to budget for enhanced security
\npersonnel, training, and infrastructure improvements.<\/p>\n
Takeaway<\/p>\n
This legislation underscores New York’s growing focus on
\nworkplace violence prevention expanding into healthcare. Hospitals
\nand nursing homes should act quickly to align policies, staffing,
\nand training with the new mandates.<\/p>\n
The content of this article is intended to provide a general
\nguide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
\nabout your specific circumstances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seyfarth Shaw LLP are most popular:
within Compliance, Government, Public Sector and Consumer Protection topic(s)
Seyfarth Synopsis:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-81789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}