STAND. COM. REP. NO 106

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    S.B. No. 300

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 300 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO VIOLENCE AGAINST HEALTH CARE PERSONNEL,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Amend the offense of assault in the second degree as it applies to medical professionals by expanding the types of medical services providers protected under this offense; and

 

     (2)  Clarify that the offense of assault in the second degree does not apply to patients located outside of emergency rooms receiving medical services at the time injury to a medical services provider occurs.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from The Queen's Health Systems, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Government Employees Association, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, Hawaii Primary Care Association, and one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that health care workers are over four times more likely to be victims of workplace violence than other private sector workers.  Health care workers are hit, kicked, scratched, bitten, spat on, threatened, and harassed by patients with surprising regularity, negatively impacting medical personnel by reinforcing that this type of violence is part of the job.  Increased penalties for assaults against health care workers will help to protect these workers by providing them with legal recourse should any assault occur.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by amending language to expand the scope of protection for patients to include assaults against all medical service personnel who are treating the patient, not only those occurring within the emergency room.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 300, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 300, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

 

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair