Adopted Workplace Violence Prevention Rules for Health Care Employers

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Rulemaking Summary:

This rulemaking aligns Oregon OSHA with statutory changes from Senate Bill 537 (SB 537) approved by the Oregon Legislature and signed by Governor Kotek in 2025. SB 537 addresses violence in health care settings. In response, Oregon OSHA has adopted OAR 437-002-0150 Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care Employers and amended OAR 437-001-0295 Discrimination Complaint and OAR 437-001-0706 Recordkeeping for Healthcare Assaults.

This rulemaking affects approximately 62 Licensed Hospitals, 91 Ambulatory Surgical Centers, 65 Licensed Home Health Agencies, and 74 Licensed Home Hospice Programs currently operating in Oregon in 2026.

Hospitals and Ambulatory Surgical Centers had already been implementing an assault prevention and protection program and other statutory requirements from ORS 654.414 since 2007. SB 537 created new provisions by amending ORS 654.412 to expand protections from “assaults” to a broader definition of “workplace violence” to include any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, assault, homicide or any other threatening behavior that occurs in the workplace. The changes to ORS 654.412 from SB 537 also expand the types of organizations required to have a workplace violence prevention program to include home health agencies and home hospice programs, which must now follow the existing and new requirements in ORS 654.414.

Oregon Health Authority (OHA) also conducted rulemaking in response to SB 537, amending 15 rules and adopting seven rules to align with changes to ORS 441.096. OHA adopted PH 16-2026 on 1/29/26 and made those rules effective 2/1/2026.

Oregon OSHA has adopted a new rule to encompass all the definitions and provisions in ORS 654.412 and 654.414 as OAR 437-002-0150 in Division 2. The requirements for healthcare employers in the adopted rule broadly include:
• Conducting periodic security and safety assessments to identify existing threats of workplace violence,
• Developing and implementing a workplace violence prevention and protection program based on assessments, and
• Providing workplace violence prevention and protection training on an annual basis.

Healthcare organizations must now also consult with their safety committee, or with employees during safety meetings when allowed under OAR 437-001-0765, on procedures for health care employers to investigate, collect and report on incidents of workplace violence.

To align with changes from SB 537 to ORS 654.062, the division amended OAR 437-001-0295 in Division 1, the Discrimination Complaint rule, to make clear that an employee may file a complaint if they believe discrimination has occurred for reporting a health care assault or other incident of workplace violence.

Lastly, the division amended OAR 437-001-0706 Recordkeeping for Health Care Assaults to bring it into line with new and revised definitions in ORS 654.412. The title of the rule has been updated to Recordkeeping for Health Care Workplace Violence. In addition, language updates were made to Appendix A of this rule, which gives directions on how to fill out the workplace violence incident log, to account for changed definitions and categories.

Oregon OSHA held two remote public hearings on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. and Thursday, August 13, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. and received oral testimony requesting modifications to the training requirement. Oregon OSHA accepted public comments on the proposed changes until August 31, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. and the division received four written comments.

The rules were adopted as proposed except for formatting adjustments and punctuation corrections. In Appendix A of OAR 437-001-0706, the written content was removed from a table format to improve readability and to comply with regulatory requirements under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines for web content. The outline structure in Appendix A remains the same, and the changes in wording were adopted as proposed; a period was added in section (K), and an extra bracket was removed from (Q). The need for this formatting change was identified after the notice of proposed rulemaking was filed on June 26, 2026. In addition, prior to adoption, punctuation corrections were made to the reprinted statutes in Appendix A of OAR 437-002-0150 to align exactly with statutory text and in OAR 437-001-0295(1)(c).

Note: after filing the rulemaking with the Oregon SOS on 10/21/2026 and receiving feedback, Oregon OSHA adjusted OAR 437-002-0150 to integrate the content of the note under (3)(b)(D) into (3)(b).

A summary of the rulemaking and agency decisions can be found at: https://osha.oregon.gov/rules/making/Pages/comments-and-decisions.aspx

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This is Oregon OSHA Administrative Order 3-2026, adopted October 21, 2026, and effective January 1, 2027.

Direct link to the rulemaking (notice letter, filing documents, and text of adopted changes)

Oregon OSHA contact: Linda Pressnell, Technical Specialist, Salem Central Office at 503-378-3272, or email at Linda.S.PRESSNELL@dcbs.oregon.gov.

Please visit our website osha.oregon.gov/rules to view our adopted rules or select other rule activity from this page.