Amends new GS 131E-88 to now require that hospitals with emergency departments (ED’s) conduct a security risk assessment and then develop the required protocols to ensure that at least one law enforcement officer is present at all times in the ED or the same campus as the ED (previously, no security risk assessment required), unless excluded by a determination of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) under new subsection GS 131E-88(c). Adds subsection (c), which specifies that a hospital is not required to have at least one law enforcement officer present in the emergency department or on the hospital campus at all times if the hospital in good faith determines that a different level of security is necessary and appropriate for any of its ED’s based upon findings in the security risk assessment required under GS 131E-88. Requires that a hospital that determines that a different level of security is necessary and appropriate must include the basis for that determination in its security risk assessment and request an exemption for this requirement from DHHS. The hospital must also provide appropriate hospital workplace violence prevention program training, education, and resources to staff, practitioners, and non-law enforcement officer security personnel. Makes conforming changes.

Amends new GS 131E-88.2(a) (annual AOC report requirement on certain crimes) to change the due date to September 1 (was December 15) and to specify that the entities receiving the report is DHHS, Division of Health Services Regulation (Division) and to remove the specified NCGA committee from those entities. Requires the Division to collect the following data from hospitals for the preceding calendar year: (1) the number of assaults occurring in the hospital or on hospital grounds that required the involvement of law enforcement, whether the assaults involved hospital personnel, and how those assaults were pursued by the hospital and processed by the judicial system, (2) the number and impact of incidences where patient behavioral health and substance use issues resulted in violence in the hospital and the number that occurred specifically in the emergency department, and (3) the number of workplace violence incidences occurring at the hospital that were reported as required by accrediting agencies, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and other entities, by September 1 of each year.  Requires DHHS to compile the report information required by GS 131E-88.2, including any recommendations to decrease the incidents of violence in hospitals and to decrease assaults on hospital personal, and to report this information to the specified NCGA committee by December 1 of each year. Specifies that these annual reporting requirements begin on the specified due dates in 2025.

Changes the act’s general effective date to October 1, 2024 (was, October 1, 2023).

Makes conforming and organizational changes.