Legislation

* § 2832. Violence prevention program. 1. For the purposes of this
section, the term "facility" shall mean a general hospital or a nursing
home as defined in section twenty-eight hundred one of this article.

2. Within twelve months of the effective date of this section, every
facility shall establish a workplace violence prevention program. Such
program in a general hospital shall be consistent with regulatory
requirements including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Hospital Conditions of Participation regarding caring for patients in a
safe setting 42 CFR § 482.13(c)(2), and emergency preparedness 42 CFR §
482.15(a) and (d)(1), and the workplace violence standards of any
accrediting organization deemed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services under which such hospital maintains accreditation provided
however, such standards are comparable to those established by The Joint
Commission. The purpose of such a program shall be to protect health
care workers, patients, facility residents, and visitors. The program
shall, at a minimum, include the requirements set forth in this section.

3. Beginning January first, two thousand twenty-seven, all general
hospitals shall conduct, not less than annually, a workplace safety and
security assessment and develop a safety and security plan that
addresses identified workplace violence threats or hazards. As part of
the plan, a general hospital shall adopt security measures and policies,
including personnel training policies designed to prevent or minimize
identified workplace violence threats or hazards and protect employees,
patients, and visitors from aggressive or violent behavior, including
but not limited to, credible threats, assaults, injuries, and deaths. In
conducting the assessment and developing the plan, general hospitals
shall ensure the active involvement of employees, including the
recognized collective bargaining agent or agents, if any, and may do so
through established general hospital safety and security committees and
existing labor management committees. Nothing in this section shall
diminish, supplant or restrict the rights, privileges and remedies of
any employee or collective bargaining representative under applicable
law, rule or regulation or under the terms of a collective bargaining
agreement.

4. The safety and security assessment shall be tailored to the size,
complexity, and local geographical factors affecting the general
hospital and shall identify and consider relevant threats and hazards,
including but not limited to workplace violence incident reports and
incident logs, concerns or complaints raised by employees, patients,
visitors and recognized collective bargaining representatives, safety
and security considerations relating to the general hospital's layout
and access points, visitor management, and protective factors such as
access control, engineering controls to limit violence or protect
employees, alarms and communication systems, and other relevant factors,
as appropriate to the general hospital. Additionally, the assessment
shall consider the adequacy of employee training policies and security
procedures, including the handling of disruptive or violent patients and
other persons. Health care workers regularly assigned to provide
security in general hospital settings shall be trained regarding the
role of security in overall hospital operations.

5. Based on the findings and ongoing review of the workplace violence
assessment, general hospitals shall implement a workplace violence
safety and security plan, which shall be updated as necessary to address
newly identified material risks and changes in conditions. The safety
and security plan shall specify methods to reduce identified risks,
which may include employee training, increased staffing and security,
engineering controls such as barriers, lighting, alarms and
communication systems, safety equipment, general hospital improvements
or modifications, and other appropriate measures relevant to the general
hospital. Each general hospital shall provide a written detailed summary
of the safety and security plan to its employees and collective
bargaining representatives, if applicable. Each general hospital shall
also provide information to its employees and collective bargaining
representatives, if applicable, about how to report incidents of
workplace violence. Each general hospital shall share summaries of the
incident log, appropriately redacted to protect the privacy of persons
involved in an incident, trends and analysis of relevant data with the
general hospital security or safety committee responsible for workplace
violence and ensure that the data is part of the workplace violence
assessment process.

6. Notwithstanding any provision of this section, compliance by a
nursing home with the federal regulations 42 CFR 483.71(a)(3) and
(b)(1), and 42 CFR 483.73(a)(1), governing nursing homes shall satisfy
the requirements of this section for such facilities, provided that such
assessments and plans address workplace violence threats and hazards.

* NB Effective September 18, 2026