ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Fifty-fourth Legislature

Second Regular Session

 

HB 2538: health care workers; assault; prevention

Sponsor:  Representative Shah, LD 24

Committee on Judiciary

Overview

Outlines penalties for an assault on a health care worker and procedures for preventing, investigating, reporting and recording an assault.

History

Currently, aggravated assault is a class 3 felony, except if the aggravated assault is committed against a person who is under 15 years of age, then it is a class 2 felony. If the person commits the assault by any means of force and causes temporary but substantial disfigurement, loss or impairment of any body organ, part or a fracture of any body party, is a class 4 felony.

Aggravated assault is a class 5 felony if a person attempts to take control of a peace officer's or other officer's firearm and the person knows or has reason to know that the victim is a peace officer or other officer employed at any other agency. The following are some examples of an aggravated assault that is classified as a class 6 felony:

1)    If the person commits the assault while the victim is bound or otherwise physically restrained or while the victim's capacity to resist is substantially impaired;

2)    If the person commits the assault after entering the private home of another with the intent to commit the assault;

3)    If the person is eighteen years of age or older and commits the assault on a minor under fifteen years of age; or

4)    If the person commits assault if the person is in violation of an order of protection issued against the person. (A.R.S. § 13-1204)

Provisions

1.    States a person commits assault if the person knows, or has reason to know, the victim is a health care worker engaged in the health care worker's work duties. (Sec. 1)

2.    ☐ Prop 105 (45 votes) ☐ Prop 108 (40 votes) ☐ Emergency (40 votes) ☐ Fiscal NoteChanges the classification of aggravated assault from a class 6 to a class 5 felony if the assault is committed against a health care worker. (Sec. 1)

3.    Defines health care worker as:

a)    A person who works at a licensed health care institution;

b)    A person who is working to provide health care or related services in a fieldwork setting, including:

i.      Home health care, home-based hospice and home-based social work, unless the worker privately employed in the individual's residence, if the worker performs covered services for the individual or a family member of the individual; and

ii.     Any emergency services and transport, including the services provided by firefighters and emergency responders. (Sec. 1)

4.    Mandates within six months after the effective date, health care employers must develop, implement and maintain a written workplace violence prevention plan that accomplishes all of the following:

a)    Includes information tailored to the conditions and hazards of the health care employer's sites and patient-specific risk factors;

b)    Identifies the individual responsible for implementing and overseeing the plan;

c)    Requires the continuous posting of signs in public areas throughout the health care employer's sites, including all emergency facilities, that are at least 18 inches by 18 inches in size and that provide notice that assault on a health care worker may be prosecuted as a felony;

d)    Includes reporting, incident response and post-incident investigation procedures, including:

i.      Health care workers reporting workplace violence risks, hazards and incidents;

ii.     Health care employers responding to reports of workplace violence; and

iii.    Health care employers performing a post-incident investigation and debriefing of all reports of workplace violence with the participation of health care workers.

e)    Includes procedures for emergency response and indictments involving a firearm or a dangerous weapon; and

f)     Requires health care employees to provide information to health care workers about the  ability to report any assault to law enforcement and to assist the worker in reporting the assault. (Sec. 2)

5.    Requires each health care employer make its workplace violence prevention plan available at all times to health care workers and contractors. (Sec. 2)

6.    Instructs after a workplace violence incident that a health care employer has knowledge of be investigated and must do all of the following:

a)    Review the circumstances of that incident;

b)    Ask for input from involved health care workers and supervisors about the cause of the incident and whether further corrective measures could have prevented the incident;

c)    Document the findings, recommendations and corrective measures taken for each investigation conducted; and

d)    File an annual report with the Department of Health Services documenting the number of incidents each year. (Sec. 2)

7.    Directs each health care employer to provide training and education to its health care workers who may be exposed to workplace violence, hazards and risks. (Sec. 2)

8.    Mandates each health care employer maintain the following:

a)    Records relating to each of the employer's workplace violence prevention plans, including identifying, evaluating, correcting hazards, risks and training procedures; and

b)    A violent incident log for recording all workplace violence incidents and records of all investigators; the log must include the date, time and location of the incident, the names of persons involved in the incident, a description of the incident and the nature and extent of injuries to health care workers.

9.    States the health care employer annually evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of the workplace violence prevention plan, including a review of the violent incident log and comply with any training, the annual evaluation must be in writing.

10.  Requires the health care employers adopt a policy that prohibits any person, including a health care employer, from discriminating or retaliating against any health care worker for either of the following:

a)    Reporting or seeking assistance or intervention from the employer, law enforcement, local emergency services or a government agency or participating in an incident investigation; or

b)    Acting in self-defense or self-defense of others in response to a workplace violence incident, threat or concern. (Sec. 2)

11.  Defines health care employer and health care worker. (Sec. 2)

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15.                    HB 2538

16.  Initials LC/SF        Page 0 Judiciary

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