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Senate Bill 823 Update and Action

Posted almost 5 years ago by Bill Schueler

Hello Emergency Nursing Colleagues:
Passing along that our Safety of Healthcare Employees bill (S. 823) will be having a public hearing and work session with the House Committee on Health Care on Thursday (May 16th) at the Oregon State Capitol at 3 pm in room HR E. The bill passed the Senate Committee on Healthcare already as well as the Senate in April.  The bill language has been updated to include:
  • Requires the healthcare employer to share a summary of incident reports to the workplace safety committee. These reports include the hospital assault log, the injury and illness log (aka OSHA 300 log) and any other relevant information that inform the prevention of future incidence.
  • Expands ability for employees to review facility violent incident records and evaluate ongoing progress toward meaningfully addressing prevention and safety vulnerabilities internally.
  • Reinforces that it is an unlawful employment practice for any reprisal to occur against an employee for making a good-faith report of incidents that take place on health care premises.
  • Implements a timeframe by which certain health care facilities must perform a nationally and state recognized assessment.
  • Calls for a report back to the 2022 Legislative Session on the completion of health care employers’ assessments.
  • Requires review of the health care employers’ assault prevention and protection plan every two years.
As luck would have it, I'm able to take off that day, so I will be there speaking on behalf of Oregon ENA. If anyone would like to join me, you are more than welcome! 
If you would like to write representatives directly, here's the members of the House Committee on Health Care. Below is language that I used to send personal emails to legislators. Feel free to borrow and edit to your personal story. 
Best, 
Bill Schueler, MSN, RN, CEN, CPPS, WVTS
Oregon ENA Gov. Affairs Chair
Dear  , 
 
As a nurse, I take my personal safety, as well as the safety of my patients, very seriously. 
 
As you may well know, violence in healthcare is getting worse. While Oregon is one of the 9 states that mandates workplace violence education, violence continues to be a problem in our emergency departments and hospitals. 
 
I have been a victim of violence on multiple occassions and most of my colleagues have been physically assaulted at some point in their nursing career.  
 
I ask that you support Senate Bill 823, which would help to increase the safety of emergency nurses and hospital staff:
  • Requires the healthcare employer to share a summary of incident reports to the workplace safety committee. These reports include the hospital assault log, the injury and illness log (aka OSHA 300 log) and any other relevant information that inform the prevention of future incidence.
  • Expands ability for employees to review facility violent incident records and evaluate ongoing progress toward meaningfully addressing prevention and safety vulnerabilities internally.
  • Reinforces that it is an unlawful employment practice for any reprisal to occur against an employee for making a good-faith report of incidents that take place on health care premises.
  • Implements a timeframe by which certain health care facilities must perform a nationally and state recognized assessment.
  • Calls for a report back to the 2022 Legislative Session on the completion of health care employers’ assessments.
  • Requires review of the health care employers’ assault prevention and protection plan every two years.
Oregon is helping to set the standard of healthcare violence prevention across the nation. It's time that we keep that momemtum going by passing Senate Bill 823.    
 
Sincerely,