On October 7, 2011, Governor Brown signed new legislation (AB 1136) requiring general acute care hospitals to maintain a safe patient handling policy and prohibiting the discipline of any health care worker who out of concern for safety refuses to lift, reposition or transfer a patient.

The "Hospital Patient and Health Care Worker Injury Protection Act" amends the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973 ("Cal-OSHA"), and, effective January 1, 2012, will be added as Section 6403.5 of the California Labor Code.

Labor Code Section 6403.5

The new lifting law requires hospital employers to adopt an injury prevention plan for the purpose of protecting health care workers from back and musculoskeletal injuries. The plan also must address patient safety with a comprehensive "patient handling policy." The objective of the plan is to replace the manual lifting and transferring of patients with powered patient transfer devices, lifting devices, or lift teams, as appropriate for the specific patient and consistent with the employer's safety policies and the professional judgment and clinical assessment of the registered nurse.