NYS Hospitals, Nursing Homes Must Adopt Violence Prevention Programs

New workplace safety mandates are on the horizon for certain New York healthcare providers. Under recently enacted Public Health Law section 2832, covered facilities – defined as general hospitals and nursing homes – must establish workplace violence prevention programs by September 18, 2027. In addition, general hospitals must conduct annual workplace safety and security assessments beginning January 1, 2027. Lastly, starting September 18, 2026, Public Health Law section 2832-a imposes upon general hospitals certain emergency department security requirements, unless an exception applies.

The bill’s legislative history cites rising violence and threats against healthcare workers, which contribute to staff shortages as a result of injury, emotional trauma, and anxiety. It also mentions increased waiting times for patients and delays in critical medical care. To address these concerns, the law requires covered healthcare facilities to adopt workplace violence prevention programs to “protect health care workers, patients, facility residents, and visitors.”

General Hospitals

By September 18, 2027, general hospitals must establish a workplace violence prevention program that is consistent with applicable Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Conditions of Participation, including 42 CFR Section 482.13(c)(2) and 42 CFR 482.15(a) and (d)(1), and the standards of their CMS-deemed accrediting organization, provided that those standards are comparable to Joint Commission standards.

Those federal regulations require hospitals to, among other things, maintain an emergency preparedness program based on a facility-based and community-based risk assessment, updated at least every two years, with strategies for identified emergency events, continuity-of-operations planning, coordination with government emergency officials, and related policies, procedures, training, and testing. As a result, hospital administrators should review whether existing emergency preparedness documents, risk assessments, and training programs already address violence-related threats with enough specificity to satisfy, or be used as a baseline for, the new state requirements.

In addition, starting January 1, 2027, general hospitals must conduct annual workplace safety and security assessments and develop a safety and security plan that addresses identified workplace violence threats and hazards. The assessment must account for issues including, but not limited to, incident reports, complaints, facility layout, access points, visitor management, alarms, communications systems, and training and security procedures. Hospitals must also ensure the active involvement of employees, including recognized collective bargaining representatives where applicable, in conducting the assessment and developing the plan. In doing so, general hospitals may use established safety and security committees and existing labor management committees.

Hospitals must also provide employees and collective bargaining representatives, if any, with a detailed written summary of the plan and information on how to report incidents of workplace violence. In addition, each hospital must share summaries of the incident log, with appropriate redactions, trends, and analysis of relevant data with the general hospital security or the safety committee responsible for workplace violence, and ensure that the data is part of the workplace violence assessment process.

Emergency Department Security

Effective September 18, 2026, new Public Health Law section 2832-a mandates emergency department security staffing for general hospitals. Hospitals in a city or county with a population of one million or more (currently New York City, Nassau County, Suffolk County, and Westchester County) must have at least one off-duty law enforcement officer or trained security person present in the emergency department, subject to emergent staffing adjustments. Hospitals in areas with populations under one million must have at least one off-duty law enforcement officer or trained security person on the premises, with priority given to physical presence near the emergency department and direct responsibility to it. Critical access hospitals, sole community hospitals, and rural emergency hospitals are exempt from that latter rule unless the Commissioner of Health directs otherwise at a future date based on increased rates of violence.

Nursing Homes

As noted above, nursing homes also must establish a workforce violence prevention program required under Public Health Law section 2832. A nursing home will satisfy the new law if it complies with federal regulations governing facility risk assessments and long-term care emergency plans under 42 CFR 483.71(a)(3) and (b)(1), and 42 CFR 483.73(a)(1), provided that such “assessments and plans address workplace violence threats and hazards.” Operators should review existing materials now to confirm that workplace violence is addressed in a way that can be supported on review by regulators, inspectors, civil litigants, or other stakeholders.

Healthcare administrators should begin planning now. For general hospitals, the January 1, 2027 safety and security assessment deadline will arrive well before the September 18, 2027 workplace violence prevention program deadline. For both hospitals and nursing homes, early review of current policies, incident reporting practices, committee structure, training, and security staffing will assist facilities in operationalizing compliance with new state workforce violence prevention program requirements.