Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. 

If you operate a licensed hospital in the State of Vermont. 

July 1, 2025, and no grace period for compliance.

Clarification: All covered hospitals are required to have implemented a comprehensive Workforce Violence Prevention Plan by the deadline. 

You are at risk of paying significant compliance, legal, and punitive financial penalties. The average out-of-court settlement is $500,000, and jury trial settlements are often well over a million dollars.

House Bill H.259 does not specify penalties for covered hospitals; organizations that fail to comply will likely face significant financial, regulatory, and operational consequences.

Note: Vermont’s legislation follows other states (e.g., California, North Carolina), whose penalties include, but are not limited to, significant fines and loss of licensure for non-compliance. 

NO. 

Workplace violence risks are highly specific to each hospital's unique combination of risk factors, like patient volume, community crime rates, and resource availability.

A generic template cannot adequately address your hospital's vulnerabilities or prescribe relevant, effective control measures, rendering it potentially ineffective and non-compliant in practice. The bill explicitly requires hospitals to conduct individualized risk assessments and develop plans based on their unique circumstances. 

A generic template would need significant modification to address factors like local crime data, staffing levels, and facility layout

The goal is to mandate comprehensive workplace violence prevention plans in all hospitals, requiring site-specific security strategies, incident reporting systems, and staff training to protect healthcare workers from assaults and threats.

⚠️ Risks Addressed: The law targets high rates of physical assaults, threats, and psychological trauma against healthcare workers, particularly in high-risk settings like emergency departments, where Vermont has the nation’s highest rate of staff turnover due to such violence.

✅ Benefits Provided: By implementing proactive measures such as de-escalation training, incident accountability, and minimal-identification badges, the law reduces injuries and burnout while fostering safer environments for both staff and patients, without requiring costly capital investments from hospitals.

1. 📋 Workplace Violence Prevention Plan: Hospitals must develop a site-specific security plan through a collaborative team including direct-care employees, law enforcement, and regional agency representatives. This plan must address security risks identified in high-risk areas (e.g., emergency departments) 
2. 🛡️ De-escalation Training and Staffing: Hospitals must: Provide training in de-escalation techniques and trauma-informed care, and ensure at least one staff member trained in de-escalation is present in patient care areas.
3. ⚠️ Incident Reporting System: Establish a standardized system to document and track workplace violence incidents, with anti-retaliation protections for employees who report.
4. 🔐 Minimal-Identification Name Badges: Allow employees to use name badges showing minimal identification (e.g., first name only) to reduce personal targeting.
5. 🚨 Law Enforcement Coordination: Develop clear guidelines for involving law enforcement during violent incidents and ensure immediate coordination.
6. 📢 Zero-Tolerance Posting: Display notices stating zero tolerance for violence or threats in hospitals.
7. 💡 Agency of Human Services Support: The Agency must help hospitals identify funding and resources for implementing prevention plans, without mandating capital investments (e.g., structural renovations) 

We provide hospital executives with confidence and peace of mind, so they can focus on their main priority and mission: Delivering High Quality Patient Care.   

Our team of industry experts is comprised of Police Officers, Court Expert Witnesses, Military Police, Regulatory Compliance Auditors, and Board Advisors. Priding ourselves on delivering the highest quality reports that meet, if not exceed, your regulatory standards, by objectively identifying, evaluating, and ranking the risks and specific workplace violence hazards unique to your hospital(s). 

Our professionals are trained to recognize subtle environmental, operational, and behavioral indicators of potential violence across diverse industries, ensuring a comprehensive assessment that fully complies with your regulatory requirements for thoroughness and goes beyond obvious threats. 

We provide: 

• An Unbiased Perspective: Identifying risks without internal assumptions or biases.
• Regulatory Understanding: Deep industry knowledge and understanding of regulatory agencies' expectations and interpretation of H.259's requirements.
• Proven Methodologies: Structured approaches to hazard identification, assessment, and control prioritization honed through experience.
• Cross-Industry Insights: Applying effective prevention strategies learned from various sectors to your unique situation.
• Speed & Efficiency: Conducting the assessment systematically and often more quickly than an untrained internal team.