HB 24-1066

House Bill 24-1066, known as the "Violence Prevention in Health-care Settings Act," aims to protect healthcare workers by requiring hospitals, nursing homes, and other health facilities to create safety committees that develop and enforce plans to prevent workplace violence. These facilities must also provide training on these plans, report incidents of violence, and offer support services to staff affected by violent events. The bill ensures that employees can report incidents without fear of retaliation and encourages cooperation with law enforcement. Since the bill has been signed into law, it is now active and health-care settings in Colorado are required to implement its provisions.

Official Summary

The bill enacts the "Violence Prevention in Health-care Settings Act", applicable to hospitals, freestanding emergency departments, nursing care facilities, assisted living residences, and federally qualified health centers, and the "Violence Prevention in Behavioral Health Settings Act", applicable to comprehensive community behavioral health providers. Both acts require each of these facility types to: Establish a workplace violence prevention committee to document and review workplace violence incidents at the facility and develop and regularly review a workplace violence prevention plan (plan) for the facility; Adopt, implement, enforce, and update the plan; Provide training on the plan and on workplace violence prevention; Submit biannual workplace violence incident reports to the department of public health and environment or the behavioral health administration, as applicable; and If a workplace violence incident occurs, offer post-incident services to affected staff. The bill specifies the required components of facility plans. Facilities are prohibited from discouraging staff from contacting or filing an incident report with law enforcement. The bill also prohibits retaliation, discipline, or discrimination against a person who reports a workplace violence incident in good faith, who advises a staff member of the right to report an incident, or who chooses not to report an incident. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

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