Getting Ready for New York’s Workplace Violence Prevention Law for Hospitals and Nursing Homes

Last year, New York enacted a workplace violence prevention law that will impose significant obligations on general hospitals and nursing homes across the state. The law, codified at N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2832, takes effect on September 18, 2026, and requires covered facilities to establish, among other things, workplace violence prevention programs within the next year. For general hospitals, however, certain obligations relating to annual workplace safety and security assessments, as well as the development of safety and security plans addressing identified workplace violence threats and hazards, start on January 1, 2027. Given the September 18, 2026, start date, covered employers should start acting now to ensure that they have ample time to comply with the law. 

Who Is Covered

The law applies to “general hospitals” and “nursing homes.” 

General hospitals are those engaged in providing medical or medical and surgical services primarily to inpatients by or under the supervision of a physician on a 24-hour basis with provisions for admission or treatment of persons in need of emergency care, and with an organized medical staff and nursing service, including facilities providing services relating to particular diseases, injuries, conditions or deformities. The term “general hospital” does not include a residential health care facility, public health center, diagnostic center, treatment center, out-patient lodge, dispensary and laboratory or central service facility serving more than one institution.

“Nursing home” means a facility providing nursing care to sick, invalid, infirm, disabled or convalescent persons, in addition to lodging and board or health-related services.

Obligations for General Hospitals 

Beginning January 1, 2027, each general hospital must conduct workplace safety and security assessments at least annually. These assessments must be specific and tailored to the hospital’s size, complexity, and local geographic conditions. They must also evaluate:

• Workplace violence threats and hazards;
• Employee training policies;
• Existing security procedures; and
• Procedures for addressing violent or disruptive patients and other persons.

Hospitals must also develop and implement workplace violence safety and security plans based on the results of those assessments. These plans are required to protect employees and patients from workplace violence and to address the specific risks identified by the assessments. A one-size-fits-all plan for a general hospital or nursing home with multiple locations will not do – assessments must account for the specific concerns of each location.

New York State is also expecting hospitals to actively involve employees and recognized collective bargaining representatives and seek their input on the development of a safety and security assessment and plan. General hospitals also need to give employees and their unions a written detailed summary of the safety and security plan and ensure that there is an explanation for how workplace-violence incidents should be reported.  

General hospitals must also be aware of the provision of the law that imposes emergency department security staffing obligations, which generally requires either an off-duty law enforcement officer or a trained security person to be present in, or prioritized near, the emergency department at all times, depending on the hospital’s location and classification. Specifically, if a general hospital is: (1) in a city or county where the population is one million or more, then at least one off-duty law-enforcement officer or trained security person must always be present in the emergency department; or (2) in a city or county where the population is less than one million, at least one officer or trained security person must be present on the premises at all times, with their physical presence prioritized near the emergency department, and they must be directly responsible for it. However, if a general hospital is a critical-access, sole-community, or rural emergency hospital, it is excluded from the mandate, but may be required to hire an officer or security personnel if there is increased violence in the emergency department or if the New York State Health Commissioner determines that an officer or security personnel needs to be hired. 

Obligations for Nursing Homes

Nursing homes are covered by the new law, but the statute permits them to satisfy the state requirement through compliance with specified federal regulations, including 42 C.F.R. §§ 483.71(a), 483.71(b), and 483.73(a), which regulate facility assessments and emergency preparedness for nursing homes, so long as their assessments and plans address workplace violence threats and hazards.

Operators of nursing homes should not assume that existing emergency preparedness documentation is sufficient without review. Facilities should confirm that workplace violence prevention is expressly incorporated into the assessments and plans they rely on for compliance.

What Covered Employers Can Do Now

Covered general hospitals and nursing homes should consider doing the following now, so they have plenty of time to make any adjustments to comply with the law:

• Review existing workplace violence policies and incident-reporting protocols or prepare the same with competent counsel as needed;
• Assess whether current training programs adequately address known workplace violence risks;
• Evaluate physical security measures and staffing practices;
• Determine whether current assessments identify facility-specific workplace violence hazards; 
• Develop and implement a risk-assessment process that can be used to show regulators or interested parties that workforce input and other relevant sources of data are used in assessing workplace violence risks; and
• Ensure that employees receive notice of how to report workplace violence concerns and incidents and ensure that employees are trained on workplace violence policies and prevention.

Bottom Line

New York’s new workplace violence law signals a more formal and preventive approach to workplace violence in health care settings. General hospitals, in particular, will need to implement recurring assessments, written security planning, and employee communication measures on an accelerated timeline. Nursing homes also have their own obstacles, but they can use the lead time before the effective date of the law to ensure their existing compliance framework clearly addresses workplace violence prevention. Covered employers should prepare by determining how they will adopt and comply with these requirements, including who will be responsible for implementation, training, and record keeping, as the obligations imposed here are significant.