From “Violence Against Health Care Workers Captures Regulators’ Attention”
Business Insurance (04/26/17) Gonzalez, Gloria. Reprinted by ASIS.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is “paying close attention” to workplace violence against health care workers, according to Safety National Casualty Corp.’s Mark Walls. In 2015, there were more than 11,000 violent incidents against employees in the health care and social assistance sector — a number that is nearly as high as all other industries combined. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health Administration Standards Board unanimously adopted the first workplace violence prevention standard for health care workers in the United States last year, with the standard taking effect April 1. General acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and special hospitals must report incidents of workplace violence at their facilities to Cal/OSHA. The safety regulators are then required under Senate Bill 1299 to post a report each January on the total number of incidents reported, the names of the hospital facilities, the outcomes of inspections or investigations, the citations levied against a hospital based on a violent incident, and recommendations for the prevention of violent incidents in hospitals.
Gregory M. Schmidt, CPP, PSP, CHPA 