Bill > AB1199

This bill requires general acute care hospitals and acute psychiatric hospitals (except those operated by the State Department of State Hospitals) to develop and implement a policy mandating that all employees with patient contact wear an identification tag while on duty. The identification tag must include the employee's vocational classification or California license status in at least 18-point type, and the employee's name can be displayed in one of four ways: full first and last name, first name and last initial, first initial and last name, or first name or last name only. The legislation aims to balance employee safety and privacy with workplace security and professional identification standards. Currently, existing professional licensing laws require healthcare practitioners to disclose their name and license status on a name tag, but there are exceptions, particularly in psychiatric settings where staff safety might be a concern. By creating this new requirement, the bill expands the scope of existing regulations and potentially creates a new crime for non-compliance, which means local agencies would not be reimbursed for implementing these changes. The goal is to align hospital licensing regulations with healthcare practitioner licensing statutes while providing flexibility in how employee names are displayed on identification tags.

Budget and Finance, Health and Social Services

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1199