Senate advances bill requiring hospitals to adopt workplace-violence plans and training

The Vermont Senate on Friday advanced H 2 59, an act relating to preventing workplace violence in hospitals, directing hospitals and other health facilities to establish safety teams, perform risk assessments, adopt staff training and incident-reporting procedures and collect data on violent incidents.

The bill’s reporter, the senator from Washington, told the chamber, “This bill addresses once again an issue we have addressed several times in this, which is the prevalence of violence in our health care facilities,” and described repeated incidents in emergency departments and other patient areas that prompted the bill.

Supporters said the measure requires each facility to form a safety team that includes an employee who works directly with patients, a representative from the designated mental health agency, and a relevant law-enforcement representative. The bill directs teams to perform risk assessments of high-risk areas, create security plans and make those plans readily available to staff. It also sets out training requirements covering de-escalation, trauma-informed care, clinician well-being, defensive tactics, appropriate restraint and seclusion, crisis intervention and guidelines for when law enforcement should be contacted.

The bill further requires facilities to collect and report data on incidents, responses and calls to law enforcement so teams can identify weaknesses and adapt plans; it explicitly states that the law does not require hospitals to make capital investments to implement a plan. The committee vote recommending the bill was 5-0.

Senators on the floor raised several questions during debate. The senator from Franklin asked whether law enforcement had testified and noted staffing shortages in police and sheriff departments, saying smaller jurisdictions sometimes lack personnel during early hours when incidents may occur. The senator from Franklin also asked how incident data would be used and whether personal information would be collected; the senator from Washington replied the intent is to count incidents and classify them (for example, patient-on-staff versus public-on-staff) to inform and amend safety plans, not to collect unnecessary personal data.

Other senators emphasized the bill responds to requests from frontline health workers. The senator from Chittenden Southeast said health-care providers sought the change because they are not trained to serve as security officers and that the bill brings community service members and hospital workers together for training the providers asked for. The senator from Madison noted the statute includes page 4 language creating an easier reporting pathway both to hospital administration and to law enforcement for victims of assault.

Some senators said further work may be needed on enforcement. When asked what would happen if a hospital failed to adopt a plan, the senator from Washington said there is no enforcement mechanism in the bill at this time, but noted hospitals routinely come to the Legislature for funding and other matters and that noncompliance would become apparent and could prompt additional action.

After discussion on the floor, the Senate voted by voice to order third reading of H 2 59; the clerk announced, “The ayes have it and you have ordered third reading of H 2 59, an act relating to preventing workplace violence in hospitals.”

The bill’s supporters cited witnesses and stakeholders who provided input to the committee, including representatives from the Vermont Emergency Nurses Association, the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Care, the American Nurses Association and Disability Rights Vermont.