Mental health: state hospitals: injury and illness prevention plan.

Existing law provides for state hospitals for the care, treatment, and education of mentally disordered persons. These hospitals are under the jurisdiction of the State Department of State Hospitals, which is authorized by existing law to adopt regulations regarding the conduct and management of these facilities. This bill would require state hospitals to update their injury and illness prevention plans at least once every year, as specified, and would require the department to submit those plans to the Legislature every 2 years. This bill would require each state hospital to establish an injury and illness prevention committee, which would meet at least 4 times a year, to provide recommendations to the hospital's director on updates to the injury and illness prevention plan, and would also require each state hospital to develop an incident reporting procedure that can be used to, at a minimum, develop reports of patient assaults on employees and assist the hospital in identifying risks of patient assaults on employees.