Employment: hospitals: virulent aerosol transmissible diseases.

Under existing law, the Division of Occupational Health and Safety, within the Department of Industrial Relations, investigates complaints that a workplace is unsafe and the division is authorized to issue orders necessary to ensure employee safety. Existing law permits the division to declare and prescribe what safety devices, safeguards, or other means or methods of protection are well adapted to render employees of every employment and place of employment safe. Under existing law, an employer who violates any standard, order, or special order of the division, or who violates statutory provisions of existing law, may be subject to criminal, civil, and administrative penalties, as specified. This bill would require an employer who employs individuals in a general acute care hospital, as defined, to, minimize the risk of occupational exposure to virulent aerosol transmissible diseases, as defined, and to provide optimal protection from occupational exposure to pathogens and aerosolized body fluids, as specified. The bill would also require these employers to, among other things, provide any health care worker who enters the room of a specified patient with personal protection equipment and a powered air purifying respirator, as specified. By expanding the definition of an existing crime, this bill would result in a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.