On July 17, 2025, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed SB 537, which adds to Oregon’s growing set of workplace violence prevention laws relating to health care.

The bill passed the state Senate with an 18-11 vote on June 23, and the House, 37-12, on June 26, during the final days of the legislative session. The new provisions add detailed requirements for health care work sites.

Workplace Violence Prevention

The new law amends current ORS § 654.412 et seq., “Safety of Health Care Employees,” adopted in January 2020. Among the new provisions is a directive to health care employers to implement a more finely tuned workplace violence prevention plan into their existing “assault” prevention and protection program (note that the new law changes the term “assault” to “workplace violence” throughout).

The 2020 version of ORS § 654.414  requires that a health care employer “develop and implement an assault prevention and protection program for employees” based on “periodic security and safety assessments to identify existing or potential hazards for assaults.” The assessment shall include, but not be limited to:

• Measuring the frequency of assaults committed against employees during the preceding five years (or for the years that records are available, if fewer than five);
• Identifying the causes and consequences of assaults against employees;
• Addressing security considerations relating to
  • physical attributes of the health care setting;
  • staffing plans, including security staffing;
  • personnel policies;
  • first aid and emergency procedures;
  • procedures for reporting assaults; and
  • education and training for employees.

The amended ORS § 654.414 clarifies that the assessment must include:

• A measure of the frequency of workplace violence and attempts of workplace violence committed on the premises of a health care employer or in the home of a patient receiving home health care services during the preceding five years (or for the years that records are available, if fewer than five);
• An analysis of the root causes and consequences of workplace violence committed against employees, including a plan for addressing the analyzed causes; and
• Findings on the extent to which various security considerations were implemented to mitigate risks of workplace violence.

The new law specifically requires the incorporation and implementation of a workplace violence prevention and response plan into the program and requires, in addition to the assessment and security considerations, policies and procedures for:

• Conducting internal investigations of incidents of workplace violence that occur on the premises of the health care employer;
• Identifying employees involved in a workplace violence incident;
• Conducting post-incident employee interviews for the purpose of gathering factual details about an incident of workplace violence; and
• Implementing post-incident response strategies that address the provision of:
  • First aid or medical care to injured employees; and
  • Trauma counseling for affected employees.

Training

SB 537 requires that workplace violence training be conducted on an annual (formerly “a regular and ongoing”) basis for “employees,” as well as any contracted security personnel who work at the premises of the health care employer. The new law makes a number of detailed additions to the topics required to be addressed as part of such training, including

• Emergency response guidelines that may be used to notify employees and contracted security personnel who work at the premises of the health care employer of a threat or occurrence of workplace violence;
• The meaning of workplace violence;
• Escalation cycles for violent and threatening behavior;
• Verbal and physical techniques to de-escalate and minimize both assaultive behaviors and threats of workplace violence;
• Procedures for documenting and reporting incidents involving both assaultive behaviors and incidents of workplace violence;
• Resources available to employees coping with workplace violence (not just assaults);
• The health care employer’s violence prevention and protection program, including the employer’s internal investigation process for investigating incidents of workplace violence;
• Visual cues and other methods that may be used to identify or notify employees about individuals exhibiting behavioral indicators of workplace violence;
• Responding to active shooter incidents;
• Having a person with appropriate knowledge and expertise available to answer employee questions and clarify any aspects of the training;
• Providing the employee and the employee’s union representative, if applicable, a written copy of the workplace violence prevention and response plan and a written statement—both within 30 calendar days, for a new hire—that an employee has a right to be protected from retaliation.

Training is to be held within 90 days of a new employee’s initial hiring date or within 14 days for a temporary employee.

Safety Requirements for Health Care Settings

SB 537 updates requirements for identification badges in health care settings, stating that while a health care practitioner working at a health care facility and providing direct care to a patient must generally wear an identification badge indicating the practitioner’s name and professional title, no person working in a hospital, home health agency or home hospice program shall be required to wear an identification badge that includes the employee’s last name—unless required by law or if the worker specifically requests this.

The new law also contains a host of provisions relating to electronic health record flagging systems; bullet-resistant requirements for emergency room intake windows (for hospitals that are newly constructed or renovated); and client intake requirements and training regarding home health care settings. Client intake requirements include a client intake questionnaire that must, at a minimum, inquire about:

• The presence of pets at a home health care setting and whether they can be secured away from the area where care is given;
• Suspected pest infestation; and
• The willingness of the client to store weapons.

Takeaways

Positions on SB 537 were somewhat mixed, with the Oregon Nurses Association and the Oregon Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians on the pro side and the Hospital Association of Oregon opposed. 

“In previous legislative sessions and during the interim periods, legislators have convened broad coalitions of stakeholders to develop workplace violence prevention proposals that have resulted in introduced legislation that promoted collaborative solutions,” a representative of the Hospital Association of Oregon wrote, adding that SB 537 “has not had sufficient stakeholder engagement” and “is not the right approach.”

Still, nearly all states have adopted at least minimal laws in an attempt to address the problem of workplace violence in health care. These can range from requiring specific and extensive workplace violence prevention plans in health care facilities, prescribing enhancements for the offense of assault and/or battery of health care workers, or both. Oregon has emerged as one of the leaders in a year that has seen some action at the state level—but no federal standards.

Epstein Becker Green Staff Attorney Ann W. Parks contributed to the preparation of this post.