Oregon's 2019 Legislative Session Update
Posted about 5 years ago by Bill Schueler
The Oregon Emergency Nurses Association is following bills in the 2019 Oregon Legislature pertaining to workplace violence.
HB 2467 would increase the penalty for an assault (recklessly, knowingly and intentionally) on a hospital worker as a class C felony. This bill is sponsored by Legacy Health and has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. No public hearing or work session has been scheduled at this time.
We are waiting for the Oregon Nurses Association to introduce bill language that would address antiretaliation for reporting workplace violence; providing hospital workplace violence reporting data to hospital committees and any employee who requests; hospital security assessments; require a workplace violence program evaluation on a regular basis (annually or biannually) and report it to the employees and add nurse staffing levels at the time of a violent incident to the mandatory Assault Log.
Other bills we are following include:
HB 2345 - Requires hospitals and pediatric healthcare facilities to have plans for treating or transferring pediatric sexual assault survivors.
HB 2545 - Would require use of headlights when windshield wipers are on or there is fog.
HB 2621, HB 2691 & S 141- Would establish a statewide mental health crisis support access line
HB 2624 & S 140- Establishes an Emergency Department Boarding Pilot Project to assess our behavioral health population in our EDs.
HB 2637 - Would require EDs to accept and treat individuals who need medical detoxification, including by providing peer mentoring.
S 7 - Would lower the legal blood alcohol level to 0.05.
S 52 - would require school districts to adopt a policy on student suicide prevention
Please reach out to govaffairs@oregon-ena.org with any comments or questions you may have!