Committee unanimously advances hospital workplace‑violence reporting bill

Representative Hall introduced HB380 to centralize reporting on workplace violence against health-care workers and to extend a sunset on enhanced penalties. She said hospitals already track incidents but the bill "would put it in one place so we can see is this trend continuing upward?" and support longer-term prevention planning.

Rebecca Blair Stevenson (Utah Nurses Association) provided data and context, saying it is estimated that 80% of nurses experience workplace violence and that Utah had 21,813 reported events between 2019 and 2022. She told the committee that much of workplace violence is underreported and argued for public, de-identified data to inform prevention and training.

Dave Gessel (Utah Hospital Association) and other clinicians testified in support; the committee voted unanimously to advance HB380 with a favorable recommendation.