Workplace Violence Prevention Act

By July 1, 2026 each health care setting is required to implement a plan to reasonably prevent and protect employees from violence. The plans needs to address the following security considerations:

• Physical attributes of the health care setting
• Staffing, including security staffing
• Personnel policies
• First aid and emergency procedures
• Reporting of violent acts
• Employee Education & Training

Before the plan is developed a security and safety assessment needs to be conducted to identify existing or potential hazards.

By July 1, 2026 each health care setting is required to provide violence prevention training to all affected staff as identified by the plan on a regular basis and within the first 90 day of employment. Training must include the following topics:

• General Safety Procedures
• Personal Safety Procedures
• The violence escalation cycle
• Violence predicting factors
• Obtaining patient history form a patient with violent behavior
• Strategies to avoid physical harm
• Restraining techniques
• Appropriate use of medications as chemical restraints
• Documenting and reporting incidents
• The process whereby employees affected by a violent act may debrief
• Any resources available to employees for coping with violence
• The health care setting's workplace violence prevention plan.

By July 1, 2026 each health care setting is required to keep a record of any violent act against an employee, patient or visitor.

By July 1, 2026 any hospital operated and maintained by the State of Washington for the care of the mentally ill, is required to provide violence prevention training to affected employees identified in the plan on a regular basis and PRIOR to providing patient care.

One can readily see from the above definition that by its very nature, an event or condition must develop over a considerable period of time in order to safely call it a "trend." Thus, the writer is going somewhat out on a limb with the title of this article. Be that as it may, here we go.

In the realm of labor relations there appears to be a definite trend away from work stoppages (e.g., strikes) as a union weapon in labor disputes against employers. This may not be the case in such sectors as manufacturing and secondary education, but it is becoming more evident in the health care sector. What, then, is taking the place of the strike weapon (which, incidentally, inflicts as much, if not more, damage on the striking employees as on the employer) as an effective union response to impasse in the bargaining process? It is this writer�s observation that two approaches are being increasingly substituted:

1. Unions are employing "corporate campaigns" both in organizing drives and in dealing with labor disputes. That is, they are bypassing hospital administration and taking their case directly to the board of directors, or board of commissioners in public district hospitals. Is this approach working for the unions? It depends largely on the individual board. If communication between administration and the board members has been ongoing and positive throughout the organizing campaign or bargaining process, and there are no major political hurdles to get in the way, it would appear that the unions using this tactic have had at most a minimal level of success.
2. Over the past three or four years a trend seems to be emerging among health care employers away from the traditional or adversarial approach to contract negotiation and toward interest-based negotiation, where the parties go through a lengthy, but highly productive front-end process, of identifying mutual interests coupled with the mutual desire to show respect for and work toward closure of each party�s legitimate needs. More and more health care employers and their union counterparts are using the IBN method of conflict resolution, and the apparent success rate among those health care employers/unions has been surprisingly good. This has been the case even in those situations where labor relations between the parties was previously very poor. In fact, a negative relationship is usually what drives the parties to try IBN. It would not be at all surprising to see this trend continue into the indefinite future.

On the employee relations side of the ledger, there appears to be a clear trend toward employers being willing to expand their policies in the area of flextime. An organization located in San Francisco known as "New Ways to Work" collaborates with large and small companies to help them develop flextime policies and practices. Among companies that are part of their "FlexGroup Project" are Bank of America, Chevron Corp., Citibank, and Hewlett Packard Co. According to NWW these companies "explore work flexibility in their organizations and develop ways to make it integral to their business strategy."

Another organization with which NWW collaborates is the International Society for Work Options (ISWO). "Work options" are defined as voluntary and equitable alternatives to standard working arrangements. Options include: flextime, annual hours, compressed workweeks, job sharing, telecommuting, banked overtime, phased retirement, at-home/contract work, and V-time (defined as "voluntary reduced work time.") A number of these approaches sound familiar because health care employers have been on the leading edge of instituting a variety of work options to accommodate their employees.

No doubt various forms of flextime will continue to grow in popularity throughout all business sectors, as employees expect (and unions demand) that they be given more flexibility in the use of their time both for work and personal needs.

For more information from NWW, contact Barney Olmsted or Suzanne Smith at phone: (415) 995-9860; fax: (415) 995-9867; e-mail: [email protected]

By: Fred Lorenz

Joint Commission Success!

Nearly two years prior to our survey date, the management of Stevens committed itself to the goal of becoming accredited with no Type I contingencies. The project was led by our Executive Director of Patient Care Services. We formed teams and assigned team leaders for each of the major components of the survey. Team leaders were responsible for making sure their assigned area came through the survey with no Type I�s. Our monthly meetings consisted of

reports from each of the team leaders along with a review of JCAHO standards and updates on "hot topics". Each of us gathered information from a

variety of sources (newsletters, peers, the internet) to keep abreast of the issues on which JACHO is focusing. For HR, I used the "JCAHO Advisor" published by C&R Publications (781-485-0880) and found it most helpful in keeping me up-to-date with understanding the standards.

In addition, we hired JCAHO surveyors (MagCare in St. Louis, Mo.), who consult when not working for JCAHO, to come in and audit our organization twice: once early on in our preparations and again just a month prior to our survey. We asked them to be both picky and educational in dealing with our managers. Their advice was instrumental to our success. They told me the questions they ask HR directors when surveying and what documents would be acceptable and what I needed to change and how to do it easily to meet their standards. Their visits were set-up just like a survey so it felt almost like the real thing. By the time it really was the real thing I was comfortable with both the process and the questions. A little confidence goes a long way with JCAHO surveyors!

A lot of teamwork, focus and information sharing made us successful. Hope this helps each of you to prepare for your next JCAHO survey.

Be on the lookout for the new WSHHRA Web Page��

Ideas

or

Suggestions

This newsletter will only be as good as the contributions from members make it! We welcome submissions at any time! If you have an open position you would like included in the newsletter, feel free to submit to Lisa McDaniel. We will try to have a quarterly newsletter provided that we have enough material.

Membership Dues

Don't forget to complete the WSHHRA membership form and submit this along with your dues to Lisa McDaniel. If you need a new form, give her a call at 360-678-7656 Ext 3248.