STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2584

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2032

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2032, S.D. 1, 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)  Add intentionally or knowingly causing bodily injury to medical services providers to the offense of assault in the second degree; and

 

     (2)  Expand the protections under the offense of assault in the second degree to include medical services providers who work in medical clinics and federally qualified health centers.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Primary Care Association; The Queen's Health Systems; Kaiser Permanente Hawaii; Healthcare Association of Hawaii; United Public Workers, AFSCME Local 646, AFL-CIO; and Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO.

 

     Your Committee finds that health care workers have faced increased risks of job-related violence in recent years.  Given the increased risk of serious assaults occurring in health care settings, your Committee further finds that the legal protections currently afforded to health care workers in emergency departments should be extended to medical services providers in medical clinics and federally qualified health centers.  In light of the recent reports of health care workers sustaining injury at work, your Committee requested the Healthcare Association of Hawaii to submit data to support the necessity of this measure.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2032, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2032, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

 

 

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair