New York Announces Workplace Violence Prevention Requirements

A Step Forward for Healthcare Safety

When New York announced its new workplace violence prevention requirements for hospitals and nursing homes in December, we were not surprised. What New York is requiring by September 2027 outlines what healthcare organizations will need to implement: a structured, systematic approach to preventing workplace violence.

The timing is significant. Healthcare workplace violence has increased dramatically, with some facilities experiencing 60% increases in violent incidents year-over-year. New York's framework acknowledges what frontline workers know: preventing workplace violence requires more than reactive measures. It demands comprehensive planning, continuous assessment, and coordinated execution.

The new requirements are both challenging and necessary. Hospitals must conduct annual security assessments, maintain detailed incident logs, involve employees and unions in assessment processes, update prevention plans regularly, and ensure proper security staffing. For many organizations, this represents significant operational complexity.

This is precisely why Kim Urbanek and I developed OPTICS for Healthcare.

OPTICS was designed to address comprehensive compliance requirements like these. Our platform wasn't created as a generic incident reporting tool. It was purpose-built to help healthcare organizations assess their current state, analyze risks, and create action plans, policies, and playbooks to assure the safety and wellbeing of healthcare professionals working in a growing milieu of workplace violence.

The state requirements for an annual assessment align with our Current State Assessment module, which automates much of this process by guiding users through facility-specific discovery questions customized by state regulations and organizational factors. Organizations can then update their plans, build on previous assessments, track changes over time, and identify emerging trends, rather than starting from scratch annually.

New York's requirement for employee and union involvement reflects best practices in stakeholder engagement, which is something our Workflow Manager facilitates. The OPTICS platform ensures the right people are involved at the right time, with clear accountability and transparent collaboration. Humans in the loop are critical.

Regular plan updates are driven by identified risks with enhanced benefit from our AI capabilities. OPTICS continuously monitors regulatory changes across key accreditation agencies, and at the federal and state levels, automatically alerting organizations when policies need updating. Our GAP Analysis feature produces Action Plans informed by regulatory requirements and industry best practices. The Action Plans allow healthcare organizations to prioritize, assign, and track specific tasks.

The Playbook Builder generates facility-specific policies and procedures reflecting current requirements and organizational realities. This becomes especially valuable as other states follow New York's lead in mandating comprehensive workplace violence prevention programs.

OPTICS isn't a magic solution that makes compliance effortless. It provides healthcare organizations with a systematic framework for meeting requirements in ways that are sustainable, scalable, and genuinely improve safety outcomes. The platform handles regulatory tracking complexity, assessment management, and policy development so safety officers and administrators can focus on protecting their people.

New York's regulations represent meaningful progress in healthcare worker safety. Organizations that treat these requirements as opportunities to fundamentally improve workplace violence prevention, and not just compliance checkboxes, will surely succeed at mitigating risk. 

The most effective safety programs combine risk assessments, training, data, technology, expertise, and genuine organizational commitment. 

That's the approach OPTICS was built to support.

About David Brake

DAVID is the Co-founder and CEO of OPTICS for Healthcare, an AI-first company dedicated to creating safer healthcare environments for staff, patients, and the public. The OPTICS platform was designed to revolutionize how healthcare organizations approach facility assessments, enabling them to conduct comprehensive current-state evaluations, generate detailed gap analyses, and develop customized workplace violence policies and action-specific operational playbooks.

About Kim Urbanek

KIM is a leading Workplace Violence Prevention expert with over 26 years of healthcare, security, and emergency management  experience. Kim is a nationally sought-after speaker, a #1 best-selling author, and a recognized healthcare consultant. Kim is the Co-founder and Chief of Innovation and Practice of OPTICS for Healthcare, an AI driven workplace violence risk assessment and mitigation tool, designed to reduce violence and improve operations at healthcare organizations.