Health and safety resources

Cal-OSHA Workplace Violence Prevention in Healthcare

April 1, 2017 Cal-OSHA Compliance Requirement for Violence Prevention in Healthcare.

(d) Violent Incident Log. The employer shall record information in a violent incident log (Log) about every incident, post-incident response, and workplace violence injury investigation performed in accordance with subsection (c)(12). Information about each incident shall be based on information solicited from the employees who experienced the workplace violence. The employer shall omit any element of personal identifying information sufficient to allow identification of any person involved in a violent incident, such as the person's name, address, electronic mail address, telephone number, or social security number, or other information that, alone or in combination with other publicly available information, reveals the person's identity. The Log shall be reviewed during the annual review of the Plan required in subsection (e).

(g) Reporting Requirements for General Acute Care Hospitals, Acute Psychiatric Hospitals, and Special Hospitals.

(1) Every general acute care hospital, acute psychiatric hospital, and special hospital shall report to the Division any incident involving either of the following:

(A) The use of physical force against an employee by a patient or a person accompanying a patient that results in, or has a high likelihood of resulting in, injury, psychological trauma, or stress, regardless of whether the employee sustains an injury;

(B) An incident involving the use of a firearm or other dangerous weapon, regardless of whether the employee sustains an injury.

(h) Recordkeeping: 

(3) Records of violent incidents, including but not limited to, violent incident logs required by subsection (d), reports required by subsection (g), and workplace violence injury investigations conducted pursuant to subsection (c)(12), shall be maintained for a minimum of five years. These records shall not contain “medical information” as defined by Civil Code Section 56.05(j).

Cal-OSHA section 3342: Implementation. Employers with employees in operations identified in subsections (a)(1)(A) through (a)(1)(E) shall implement subsections (d), and (h) by April 1, 2017. General acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and special hospitals shall also implement subsection (g) by April 1, 2017.