STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2018

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2032

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2032 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 assault in the second degree offense; and

     (2)  Expand the protections under the offense to include medical services providers that work in medical clinics and federally qualified health centers.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, The Queen's Health Systems, Kaiser Permanente, Hawaii Association of Professional Nurses, Hawaii Pacific Health, Kahi Mohala Behavioral Health, and four individuals.

     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.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by expanding the protections under the offense to include unlicensed medical professionals and other medical staff involved in the direct care of patients.

     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. 2032, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2032, 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