Status: Enacted — codified at R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 23-17.28; original act effective January 15, 2022, with subsequent amendments through the 2024 General Assembly session.

Bill Number: Rhode Island General Laws ch. 23-17.28 (Hospital Workplace Violence Protection Act); originally enacted via H 5817 / S 0055 (2021 session)

Jurisdiction: Rhode Island

Category: Healthcare Workplace Violence (Operational Mandate)

Industries: Healthcare

Enacted Date: 2021 session

Effective Date: January 15, 2022

Summary: The Rhode Island Hospital Workplace Violence Protection Act, codified at R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 23-17.28, requires every Rhode Island hospital to establish a workplace violence prevention program. The Act creates a baseline operational framework that includes a hospital workplace safety committee, periodic security and safety assessments, an assault prevention and protection program, regular employee training in de-escalation and self-defense, a non-retaliation reporting process for employees who experience or witness assaultive behavior, and a five-year retention requirement for assault incident records.

Rhode Island sits in the same operational-mandate cohort as New York, Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington, Connecticut, Texas, and California. The Act is enforced through Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) hospital licensure oversight. Like the Joint Commission’s NPG 2a workplace violence prevention framework, the statute is heavily document-driven: the safety committee must conduct documented assessments, training must be tracked, and assault records must be preserved for five years to support enforcement and worker-compensation linkage.

Key Provisions:

Workplace Safety Committee: Each hospital must establish a workplace safety committee with employee representation.
Security and Safety Assessments: Hospitals must conduct periodic security and safety assessments of the physical environment and operational practices.
Assault Prevention and Protection Program: Hospitals must develop and implement an assault prevention and protection program tailored to identified risks.
Training: Regular training for employees in de-escalation techniques and self-defense.
Non-Retaliation Reporting: Employees may file complaints regarding assaultive behavior on hospital grounds without fear of retaliation.
Records Retention: Hospitals must maintain records of all reported assaults for at least five years.

Affected Entities: All Rhode Island licensed hospitals as defined under R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 23-17. The Act does not extend to nursing homes or behavioral health facilities, which are governed by separate statutory schemes.

Penalties and Enforcement: Enforcement is administered by the Rhode Island Department of Health through hospital licensure oversight. Failure to maintain a compliant workplace violence prevention program exposes a hospital to licensure conditions or action, in addition to the federal accreditation consequences flowing from a Joint Commission survey finding under NPG 2a.

IntelliSee Relevance: High — the Act’s five-year assault-record retention requirement and its periodic safety-assessment obligation are both contemporaneous-evidence problems. RIDOH inspectors and a hospital safety committee both need a documented, time-stamped record of the assaults that occur on hospital grounds, including the location and conduct involved. IntelliSee’s AI-powered continuous monitoring of existing camera infrastructure — including AI weapon detection, fall detection, and aggressive-behavior detection — produces exactly the kind of time-stamped, location-tagged incident record that satisfies the Act’s recordkeeping requirement and feeds the safety committee’s assessment cycle.

Rhode Island Hospital Workplace Violence Protection Act (R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 23-17.28)

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