An Act To Increase Safety in Health Care Facilities
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 22 MRSA §1728 is enacted to read:
§ 1728. Safety and security in health care facilities
1. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings.
A. "Health care" means any care, treatment, service or procedure to maintain, diagnose or otherwise affect an individual's physical or mental condition.
B. "Health care facility" means a facility, institution or entity licensed pursuant to this Title that offers health care to persons in this State.
2. Safety and security plan. A health care facility shall, on an annual basis, adopt a safety and security plan to protect the patients, visitors and employees of the health care facility from aggressive and violent behavior. The safety and security plan must include a process for health care facilities to receive and record incidents and threats of violent behavior occurring at or arising out of employment at the health care facility. The safety and security plan must prohibit a representative or employee of the health care facility from interfering with a person making a report as provided in the plan. The provisions of this section do not apply to a hospital required to adopt a safety and security plan pursuant to section 1832.
SUMMARY
Under current law, hospitals are required to annually adopt a safety and security plan to protect patients, visitors and employees of the hospital from aggressive and violent behavior. This bill extends that requirement to all health care facilities.