"Keep Texas Beautiful" and Safe from Workplace Violence

Texas recently enacted a new Workplace Violence Prevention law to protect healthcare employees from violence in Texas healthcare facilities. Texas also implemented a complementary notice requirement applicable to all Texas employers to encourage reporting incidents of workplace violence.

Texas implements statutory protec- tions to prevent workplace violence against healthcare workers. Chapter 331 of the Health and Safety Code requires healthcare facilities to address, prevent, and respond to incidents of workplace violence in the healthcare industry.

Covered facilities must establish a workplace violence prevention committee, which will in turn develop workplace violence prevention plans and policies. These plans and policies must be in place by September 2024. Facilities that violate Chapter 331’s requirements are subject to disciplinary action by the appropriate Texas licensing agency.

Texas healthcare facilities must form workplace violence prevention committees. Workplace violence prevention committees must include at least one registered nurse and one physician licensed to practice medicine in Texas (unless the facility does not employ a physician), both of whom must provide direct care to patients of the facility. The committee also must include one facility employee who provides security services.

A healthcare system that owns multiple facilities may form one committee to cover all facilities. However, the committee must develop prevention plans (discussed below) for each facility and keep facility data regarding workplace violence distinctly identifiable.

The committees must develop a written workplace violence prevention plan. The prevention plan must (1) be based on the practice setting; (2) adopt a definition of “workplace violence” that includes both (a) an act or threat of physical force against a healthcare provider or employee that results in, or is likely to result in, physical injury or psychological trauma; and (b) an incident involving the use of a firearm or other dangerous weapon, regardless of whether a healthcare provider or employee is injured by the weapon; (3) require the facility to provide workplace prevention training or education at least annually; (4) prescribe a system for responding to and investigating violent or potentially violent incidents at the facility; (5) address physical security and safety; (6) require the facility to solicit information from healthcare providers and employees when developing and implementing the workplace violence prevention plan; (7) allow healthcare providers and employees to report incidents through existing occurrence reporting sys- tems; and (8) require the facility to adjust patient care assignments, to the extent practicable, to prevent a healthcare provider or employee from treating a patient who has intentionally physically abused or threatened the provider or employee.

The facility must make its plan available to all healthcare providers and employees upon request. The committee must, at least annually, review and evaluate the prevention plan and report the results of its evaluation to the governing body of the facility.

Committees must also develop a workplace violence prevention policy. The policy must require the facility to (1) consider the plan and evaluate any existing plan; (2) encourage healthcare providers and employees to provide confidential information on workplace violence to the committee; (3) include a process to protect from retaliation those who provide confidential information to the committee; and (4) comply with the Texas Department of Health and Human Services’ rules relating to workplace violence.

Healthcare facilities must appropriately respond to incidents of workplace violence. The law sets forth what healthcare facilities must do when an incident of workplace violence occurs. At a minimum, the facility must offer immediate post-incident services to the healthcare provider or employee including any necessary acute medical treatment of those directly involved in the incident.

A facility may not discourage anyone involved in the incident from contacting law enforcement. Facilities also cannot discipline, discriminate against, or retaliate against any person who in good faith reports an incident of workplace violence or advises a healthcare provider or employee of their right to report an inci- dent of workplace violence.

All Texas employers are required to post notice for reporting of workplace violence. Texas recently implemented Chapter 104A, “Reporting Workplace Violence,” of the Texas Labor Code. The law applies to all Texas employers—not just healthcare facilities. Chapter 104A requires Texas employers to post a notice with the contact information for reporting instances of workplace violence or suspicious activity to the Department of Public Safety. The notice must be posted in both English and Spanish in conspicuous places in the employer’s place of business that are sufficiently convenient to all employees.

The Texas Workforce Commission issued a form of the required notice, which is available here: www.twc.texas.gov/sites/default/files/fdcm/docs/work-place-violence-poster-twc.pdf.

Republished with permission. This article, "'Keep Texas Beautiful' and Safe from Workplace Violence" was published by Dallas Bar Association, July 2024.