Reform Through Regulation

On Jan. 1, 2022, The Joint Commission (TJC) started enforcing new workplace violence prevention requirements to guide hospitals in developing strong workplace-violence prevention programs. ACEP helped develop these new requirements by participating in an expert workgroup and supplying comments. Here’s an overview of the new standards:

• Workplace Assessment: Hospitals must conduct an annual worksite analysis related to their workplace violence prevention program, and based upon findings, leadership must take action to mitigate or resolve the workplace violence safety and security risks.
• Monitoring: Hospitals must establish processes for continually monitoring, internally reporting, and investigating workplace hazards, such as safety and security incidents involving patients, staff, or others within its facilities, including those related to workplace violence.
• Education and Training: Hospitals must provide training, education, and resources to leadership, staff, and licensed practitioners to address prevention, recognition, response, and reporting of workplace violence, including training in de-escalation, nonphysical intervention skills, physical intervention techniques, and response to emergency incidents.
• Response Plans: Hospital response plans will specify policies and procedures to prevent and respond to workplace violence, processes to report incidents to analyze incidents and trends, and processes for follow-up and support to affected victims and witnesses.

ACEP is also working with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to seek input from emergency physicians to create federal workplace standards and protections for health care workers. However, OSHA’s regulatory process has been put on hold during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Lobbying for Legislation

Protecting emergency physicians from ED violence has been a core component of ACEP’s federal advocacy efforts for years and was a priority issue during LAC22 in early May. Hundreds of emergency physicians shared their stories about encountering ED violence with their legislators and asked them to establish important, common sense procedures to protect emergency physicians, health care workers, and patients from violence in the health care workplace.

ACEP is lobbying for two bills on the table right now that seek to prevent workplace violence, working closely with the sponsors throughout:

H.R. 1195/S. 4182: Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act

Senate version introduced by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) on May 11, 2022, 27 cosponsors as of June 17, 2022.

This bipartisan effort takes critical steps to address ED violence by requiring OSHA to issue enforceable standards to ensure health care and social services workplaces implement violence prevention, tracking, and response systems.