Healthcare employers in California should prepare for a host of new workplace safety requirements, starting this weekend. California’s new healthcare workplace safety prevention law takes effect April 1, 2017.

The scope of the regulation affects almost all health care facilities, medical groups, and several other care facilities including senior care centers, nursing homes, and retirement homes. Healthcare employers should not take the new regulations lightly as we can expect California Occupational Safety and Health Division (Cal/OSHA) will soon come knocking on doors and will enforce the regulation with some dynamism.

Specifically, if your facility provides diagnosis, treatment, convalescence, or rehabilitation (including for pregnancy), and you have capacity to admit more than 24 people, you are a covered entity.

The new regulation includes several new requirements for employers, including the establishment, implementation and maintenance of a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (WVPP) for each unit, service, and operation. There are a minimum of thirteen elements that the employer must comply with to ensure they have a full and complete WVPP.  In an addition to the WVPP, the new regulation discusses new recordkeeping requirements, training requirements, and reporting requirements.