Bill Text: TX SB240 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Relating to workplace violence prevention in certain health facilities.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Passed) 2023-05-15 - Effective on 9/1/23 [SB240 Detail]

Download: Texas-2023-SB240-Enrolled.html

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S.B. No. 240

AN ACT
relating to workplace violence prevention in certain health
facilities.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Title 4, Health and Safety Code, is amended by
adding Subtitle H to read as follows:
SUBTITLE H. HEALTH FACILITY EMPLOYEES
CHAPTER 331. WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION
Sec. 331.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
(1) "Commission" means the Health and Human Services
Commission.
(2) "Committee" means the workplace violence
prevention committee or other committee responsible for developing
a facility's workplace violence prevention plan under Section
331.002.
(3) "Facility" means:
(A) a home and community support services agency
licensed or licensed and certified under Chapter 142 to provide
home health services as defined by Section 142.001 that employs at
least two registered nurses;
(B) a hospital licensed under Chapter 241 and a
hospital maintained or operated by an agency of this state that is
exempt from licensing under that chapter;
(C) a nursing facility licensed under Chapter 242
that employs at least two registered nurses;
(D) an ambulatory surgical center licensed under
Chapter 243;
(E) a freestanding emergency medical care
facility as defined by Section 254.001; and
(F) a mental hospital licensed under Chapter 577.
Sec. 331.002. WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION COMMITTEE. (a)
Each facility shall establish a workplace violence prevention
committee or authorize an existing facility committee to develop
the workplace violence prevention plan required under Section
331.004.
(b) A committee must include at least:
(1) one registered nurse who provides direct care to
patients of the facility;
(2) except as provided by Subsection (c), one
physician licensed to practice medicine in this state who provides
direct care to patients of the facility; and
(3) one facility employee who provides security
services for the facility if any and if practicable.
(c) If a facility described by Section 331.001(3)(A) does
not have on staff at least one physician described by Subsection
(b)(2), the facility is not required to include a physician on the
committee.
(d) A health care system that owns or operates more than one
facility may establish a single committee for all of the system's
facilities if:
(1) the committee develops a violence prevention plan
for implementation at each facility in the system; and
(2) data related to violence prevention remains
distinctly identifiable for each facility in the system.
Sec. 331.003. WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION POLICY. (a) A
facility shall adopt, implement, and enforce a written workplace
violence prevention policy in accordance with this section to
protect health care providers and employees from violent behavior
and threats of violent behavior occurring at the facility.
(b) The workplace violence prevention policy must:
(1) require the facility to:
(A) provide significant consideration of the
violence prevention plan recommended by the facility's committee;
and
(B) evaluate any existing facility violence
prevention plan;
(2) encourage health care providers and employees of
the facility to provide confidential information on workplace
violence to the committee;
(3) include a process to protect from retaliation
facility health care providers or employees who provide information
to the committee; and
(4) comply with commission rules relating to workplace
violence.
Sec. 331.004. WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION PLAN. (a) A
facility shall adopt, implement, and enforce a written workplace
violence prevention plan in accordance with this section to protect
health care providers and employees from violent behavior and
threats of violent behavior occurring at the facility.
(b) A facility's workplace violence prevention plan must:
(1) be based on the practice setting;
(2) adopt a definition of "workplace violence" that
includes:
(A) an act or threat of physical force against a
health care provider or employee that results in, or is likely to
result in, physical injury or psychological trauma; and
(B) an incident involving the use of a firearm or
other dangerous weapon, regardless of whether a health care
provider or employee is injured by the weapon;
(3) require the facility to provide at least annually
workplace violence prevention training or education that may be
included in other required training or education provided to the
facility's health care providers and employees who provide direct
patient care;
(4) prescribe a system for responding to and
investigating violent incidents or potentially violent incidents
at the facility;
(5) address physical security and safety;
(6) require the facility to solicit information from
health care providers and employees when developing and
implementing a workplace violence prevention plan;
(7) allow health care providers and employees to
report incidents of workplace violence through the facility's
existing occurrence reporting systems; and
(8) require the facility to adjust patient care
assignments, to the extent practicable, to prevent a health care
provider or employee of the facility from treating or providing
services to a patient who has intentionally physically abused or
threatened the provider or employee.
(c) The written workplace violence prevention plan may
satisfy the requirements of Subsection (b) by referencing other
internal facility policies and documents.
(d) A committee at least annually shall:
(1) review and evaluate the workplace violence
prevention plan; and
(2) report the results of the evaluation to the
governing body of the facility.
(e) Each facility shall make available on request an
electronic or printed copy of the facility's workplace violence
prevention plan to each health care provider or employee of the
facility. If the committee determines the plan contains information
that would pose a security threat if made public, the committee may
redact that information before providing the plan.
Sec. 331.005. RESPONDING TO INCIDENT OF WORKPLACE VIOLENCE.
(a) Following an incident of workplace violence, a facility shall
at a minimum offer immediate post-incident services, including any
necessary acute medical treatment for each health care provider or
employee of the facility who is directly involved in the incident.
(b) A facility may not discourage a health care provider or
employee from exercising the provider's or employee's right to
contact or file a report with law enforcement regarding an incident
of workplace violence.
(c) A person may not discipline, including by suspension or
termination of employment, discriminate against, or retaliate
against another person who:
(1) in good faith reports an incident of workplace
violence; or
(2) advises a health care provider or employee of the
provider's or employee's right to report an incident of workplace
violence.
Sec. 331.006. ENFORCEMENT. An appropriate licensing agency
may take disciplinary action against a person who violates this
chapter as if the person violated an applicable licensing law.
SECTION 2. Not later than September 1, 2024, a facility
subject to Chapter 331, Health and Safety Code, as added by this
Act, shall adopt a workplace violence prevention policy and adopt
and implement a workplace violence prevention plan in accordance
with Sections 331.003 and 331.004, Health and Safety Code, as added
by this Act.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 240 passed the Senate on
March 27, 2023, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0; and that
the Senate concurred in House amendment on May 2, 2023, by the
following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 240 passed the House, with
amendment, on April 18, 2023, by the following vote: Yeas 122,
Nays 26, one present not voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
Approved:
______________________________
Date
______________________________
Governor