As Danbury Hospital and other health care providers ready for a new law requiring a plan to respond to workplace violence, attorneys say the Connecticut General Assembly is unlikely to expand the law to cover a broader range of private-sector employers.
In July, Gov. Dannel M. Malloy signed a bill that requires health care providers with at least 50 employees to produce a plan for preventing workplace violence, including provisions for reassigning employees if they feel threatened by a patient. In June, Malloy signed into law a separate bill that requires training for all state employees on workplace violence. A third bill that would have required the state to track instances of bullying and violence in Connecticut state offices did not proceed to a vote in the General Assembly.
On Sept. 19, the Connecticut Department of Labor is holding a free workshop in Wethersfield for all employers on how to recognize the early warning signs that could lead to violent confrontations, as well as skills to defuse tense situations.
The health workplace violence bill”™s enactment comes about 18 months after a patient pulled out a gun at Danbury Hospital”™s psychiatric ward and opened fire, hitting nurse Andrew Hull who survived multiple gunshot wounds.
And the new law comes one year after the mass murders at a Manchester beer distributorship that prodded employers nationally to review their policies for preventing and responding to workplace violence.
Malloy visited both sites in the past few weeks, but at Danbury Hospital focused on a planned expansion rather than on the topic of workplace violence in hospitals.
Hospitals suffer a far-higher instance of violent acts due to the numbers of patients they treat with mental disorders or substance addiction, said Paul Knag, a partner in the Stamford office of Murtha Cullina L.L.P. who was recently elected chair of the Connecticut Bar Association”™s health law section. Knag said hospitals nationally are responding by creating separate wards for patients exhibiting signs of violence, including emergency rooms.
“The old idea where you had people come into cubicles separated by sheets is not where things are going,” Knag said.
As attorneys with Jackson Lewis L.L.P. point out, under the new law hospitals and large clinics have until the end of September to create a workplace safety committee and conduct a risk assessment of their properties. By next January, they must have a plan in place and must update that plan annually.
Health care providers must also keep detailed records of any violent incidents on their premises, and report incidents to police within 24 hours. And the bill allows health care workers to request being transferred off a case if they feel they are being intentionally threatened with physical abuse. The clause allows hospitals to override that request if it cannot otherwise meet the care needs of a patient; but employees can still force the hospital to provide reinforcements.
Danbury Hospital”™s chief of psychiatry warned earlier this year that could be a tricky line to walk for institutions that operate under the Hippocratic oath.
“It would be nothing short of catastrophic to the health care delivery system because it would pose insurmountable barriers to treatment,” said Charles Herrick, in testimony to the Connecticut General Assembly. “Health care workers such as myself took an oath to provide care to all who need it, and accept the risk that the potential for violence may be the result of a patient”™s illness.”
Multiple nurses at Danbury Hospital took the opportunity to criticize their employers”™ response over the years to the risk of workplace violence, though Hull himself did not direct harsh words at the hospital while speaking of his experience.
“I love my job, but I love my 11-year-old child more,” said Paula Amero, a Danbury Hospital nurse who was on the ward that day. “I need to go to work feeling safe, and she needs to ”¦ go to school knowing her mommy won”™t get shot at again. No one loses with this bill.”
