{"id":77546,"date":"2025-08-12T16:38:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/77546\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T16:38:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:38:07","slug":"oregon-signs-law-for-health-care-workplace-violence-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/77546\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon Signs Law for Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"

On July 17, 2025, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed\u00a0SB 537<\/a>, which adds to Oregon\u2019s growing set of workplace violence prevention laws relating to health care.<\/p>\n

The bill passed the state Senate with an 18-11 vote on June 23, and the House, 37-12, on June 26, during the final days of the legislative session. The new provisions add detailed requirements for health care work sites.<\/p>\n

Workplace Violence Prevention<\/p>\n

The new law amends current ORS \u00a7 654.412 et seq., \u201cSafety of Health Care Employees,\u201d adopted in January 2020. Among the new provisions is a directive to health care employers to implement a more finely tuned workplace violence prevention plan into their existing \u201cassault\u201d prevention and protection program (note that the new law changes the term \u201cassault\u201d to \u201cworkplace violence\u201d throughout).<\/p>\n

The 2020 version of\u00a0ORS \u00a7 654.414<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0requires that a health care employer \u201cdevelop and implement an assault prevention and protection program for employees\u201d based on \u201cperiodic security and safety assessments to identify existing or potential hazards for assaults.\u201d The assessment shall include, but not be limited to:<\/p>\n

Measuring the frequency of assaults committed against employees during the preceding five years (or for the years that records are available, if fewer than five);
\nIdentifying the causes and consequences of assaults against employees;
\nAddressing security considerations relating to<\/p>\n

physical attributes of the health care setting;
\nstaffing plans, including security staffing;
\npersonnel policies;
\nfirst aid and emergency procedures;
\nprocedures for reporting assaults; and
\neducation and training for employees.<\/p>\n

The amended ORS \u00a7 654.414 clarifies that the assessment must include:<\/p>\n

A measure of the frequency of workplace violence and attempts of workplace violence committed on the premises of a health care employer or in the home of a patient receiving home health care services during the preceding five years (or for the years that records are available, if fewer than five);
\nAn analysis of the root causes and consequences of workplace violence committed against employees, including a plan for addressing the analyzed causes; and
\nFindings on the extent to which various security considerations were implemented to mitigate risks of workplace violence.<\/p>\n

The new law specifically requires the incorporation and implementation of a workplace violence prevention and response plan into the program and requires, in addition to the assessment and security considerations, policies and procedures for:<\/p>\n

Conducting internal investigations of incidents of workplace violence that occur on the premises of the health care employer;
\nIdentifying employees involved in a workplace violence incident;
\nConducting post-incident employee interviews for the purpose of gathering factual details about an incident of workplace violence; and
\nImplementing post-incident response strategies that address the provision of:<\/p>\n

First aid or medical care to injured employees; and
\nTrauma counseling for affected employees.<\/p>\n

Training<\/p>\n

SB 537 requires that workplace violence training be conducted on an annual (formerly \u201ca regular and ongoing\u201d) basis for \u201cemployees,\u201d as well as any contracted security personnel who work at the premises of the health care employer. The new law makes a number of detailed additions to the topics required to be addressed as part of such training, including<\/p>\n

Emergency response guidelines that may be used to notify employees and contracted security personnel who work at the premises of the health care employer of a threat or occurrence of workplace violence;
\nThe meaning of workplace violence;
\nEscalation cycles for violent and threatening behavior;
\nVerbal and physical techniques to de-escalate and minimize both assaultive behaviors and threats of workplace violence;
\nProcedures for documenting and reporting incidents involving both assaultive behaviors and incidents of workplace violence;
\nResources available to employees coping with workplace violence (not just assaults);
\nThe health care employer\u2019s violence prevention and protection program, including the employer\u2019s internal investigation process for investigating incidents of workplace violence;
\nVisual cues and other methods that may be used to identify or notify employees about individuals exhibiting behavioral indicators of workplace violence;
\nResponding to active shooter incidents;
\nHaving a person with appropriate knowledge and expertise available to answer employee questions and clarify any aspects of the training;
\nProviding the employee and the employee\u2019s union representative, if applicable, a written copy of the workplace violence prevention and response plan and a written statement\u2014both within 30 calendar days, for a new hire\u2014that an employee has a right to be protected from retaliation.<\/p>\n

Training is to be held within 90 days of a new employee\u2019s initial hiring date or within 14 days for a temporary employee.<\/p>\n

Safety Requirements for Health Care Settings<\/p>\n

SB 537 updates requirements for identification badges in health care settings, stating that while a health care practitioner working at a health care facility and providing direct care to a patient must generally wear an identification badge indicating the practitioner\u2019s name and professional title, no person working in a hospital, home health agency or home hospice program shall be required to wear an identification badge that includes the employee\u2019s last name\u2014unless required by law or if the worker specifically requests this.<\/p>\n

The new law also contains a host of provisions relating to electronic health record flagging systems; bullet-resistant requirements for emergency room intake windows (for hospitals that are newly constructed or renovated); and client intake requirements and training regarding home health care settings. Client intake requirements include a client intake questionnaire that must, at a minimum, inquire about:<\/p>\n

The presence of pets at a home health care setting and whether they can be secured away from the area where care is given;
\nSuspected pest infestation; and
\nThe willingness of the client to store weapons.<\/p>\n

Takeaways<\/p>\n

Positions on SB 537 were somewhat mixed,<\/a>\u00a0with the Oregon Nurses Association and the Oregon Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians on the pro side and the Hospital Association of Oregon opposed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn previous legislative sessions and during the interim periods, legislators have convened broad coalitions of stakeholders to develop workplace violence prevention proposals that have resulted in introduced legislation that promoted collaborative solutions,\u201d\u00a0a representative of the Hospital Association of Oregon wrote<\/a>, adding that SB 537 \u201chas not had sufficient stakeholder engagement\u201d and \u201cis not the right approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, nearly all states have adopted at least minimal laws in an attempt to address the problem of workplace violence in health care. These can range from requiring specific and extensive workplace violence prevention plans in health care facilities, prescribing enhancements for the offense of assault and\/or battery of health care workers, or both. Oregon has emerged as one of the leaders in a year that has seen some action at the state level\u2014but no federal standards.<\/p>\n

Epstein Becker Green Staff Attorney Ann W. Parks contributed to the preparation of this post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On July 17, 2025, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed\u00a0SB 537, which adds to Oregon\u2019s growing set of workplace…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-77546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}