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Rep. Khanna Introduces Bill Requiring Health Care Employers to Implement Workplace Violence Prevention Plans

Press Release

By: Ro Khanna
By: Ro Khanna
Date: March 8, 2018
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Business, Consumers, and Employees

Today, in response to increasing workplace violence in health care facilities across the nation, Rep. Ro Khanna introduced the Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention Act. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics analysis, 52 percent of all incidents of workplace violence in 2014 involved workers in the health care and social assistance industry. Additionally, from January 2012 to September 2014, more than 100 U.S. health care facilities reported nearly 11,000 OSHA-recordable injuries from workplace violence.

In 2014, California enacted a trailblazing law to reduce workplace violence incidents in health care facilities. This statute directed Cal/OSHA to create a workplace violence standard that went into effect in 2017. By April 1, 2018, all covered California health care employers will have created and issued specific plans to prevent workplace violence and ensure the safety of patients and workers.

Based on this standard, the Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention Act would direct the Secretary of Labor to issue an OSHA rule that requires health care employers to adopt a comprehensive workplace violence prevention plan. The violence prevention plan must be developed with input from all affected parties including, but not limited to, doctors, nurses, and custodial staff. The bill allows for one year for promulgation of the rule and another six months for health care facilities to create and implement their violence prevention plans.

"Health care workers, doctors, and nurses are continuously at risk of workplace violence incidents -- strangling, punching, kicking and other physical attacks -- that can cause severe injury or death. This is simply unacceptable," said Rep. Khanna. "The Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention Act puts a comprehensive plan in place and is a national solution to this widespread problem modeled after the success seen in California."

This legislation is supported by National Nurses United.


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