The Massachusetts Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security approved a new law that would force health care facilities to take more action in preventing workplace violence.

"Elise's Law" is named after Elise Wilson, who was violently stabbed while caring for a patient in Harrington Hospital on June 14.

The law is formally known as An Act Requiring Health Care Employers to Develop and Implement Programs to Prevent Workplace Violence.

It would require employers at hospitals to develop and put in place workplace violence prevention plans, explained the MNA. It also provides time off for health care workers who are assaulted on the job and requires semi-annual reporting of assaults on health care workers to district attorneys.