New Violence Prevention Requirements for Hospitals Operating in New York

Key Takeaways

• Beginning in 2027, New York hospitals and nursing homes will need to adopt protocols to help prevent or minimize workplace violence.

• Hospitals will also need to conduct annual security assessments and update their plans to address new risks and to add security personnel to their emergency departments as necessary.

New York hospitals and nursing homes will soon have to adopt and implement measures aimed at preventing workplace violence. These new requirements are part of an effort to address security concerns for healthcare workers and patients.

Workplace Violence Plans and Assessments

By September 2027, New York hospitals and nursing homes will need to establish workplace violence protection programs that identify and address potential workplace violence threats or hazards. Hospitals must adopt programs that, at a minimum, comply with the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Conditions of Participation regulations for safe settings and emergency preparedness (42 CFR § 482.13(c)(2) and §§ 482.15(a) and (d)(1)) and with the workplace violence standards of the hospital’s CMS-deemed accreditor.

Pursuant to this law, the hospital emergency plans, which must be reviewed and updated at least once every two years, must:

• Be based on facility and community risk assessments
• Provide strategies for specific emergency events
• Address patient populations, the types of operations the facility can provide during an emergency and plans for continuity of operations
• Include a process for coordination with federal, state and local authorities

The plans that nursing homes in New York need to adopt must, at a minimum, comply with the federal regulations for facility risk assessments and long-term care emergency preparedness plans outlined in 42 CFR §§ 483.71(a)(3) and (b)(1) and § 483.73(a)(1), “provided that such assessments and plans address workplace violence threats and hazards.”

In addition, beginning on Jan. 1, 2027, New York hospitals will be required to conduct annual safety and security assessments in order to further inform their violence prevention plans and revise them as necessary. These annual reviews must be tailored to each individual facility, but the following items must be considered:

• Workplace violence incident reports and incident logs
• Complaints raised by employees, patients, unions and visitors
• The hospital’s layout and access points
• Protective factors like visitor management, engineering controls to limit violence or protect employees, access control, alarms, and communications systems
• Employee training policies and security procedures, including those relating to the handling of disruptive or violent individuals

This law requires that the assessment process involve employees and, if applicable, unions. Any updated plans that hospitals then adopt are required to specify the measures that they will undertake to address the risks identified, such as through employee training, increased staffing and security, new controls like barriers or alarms, etc. Further, hospitals will be required to provide employees (and unions) with a written detailed summary of their safety and security plans and information about how to report incidents of workplace violence.

New York hospitals will also need to maintain logs of any incidents of workplace violence and to provide a redacted summary of these records, along with analysis of any trends, to their general security or safety committee. These records will then need to be included in the annual safety assessment process.

Additional Security Personnel

The new law may also require supplementation of a hospital’s security staff. Hospitals in cities or counties with a population of 1 million or more are required to maintain at least one off-duty law enforcement officer or trained security personnel at all times in the emergency department, subject to emergency situations that result in an adjustment in personnel. Hospitals elsewhere in the state must have at least one off-duty law enforcement officer or trained security personnel present at all times in a manner that prioritizes physical presence near or in proximity to the emergency department. The law includes some limited exceptions, such as for rural emergency hospitals, unless there is a specific increase in the rate of violence or abuse of security personnel at the facility.

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As the deadlines for these new requirements approach, the New York team within BakerHostetler’s Labor and Employment Practice Group is available to assist hospitals and nursing homes with compliance, policy drafting and training services.