The Request for Information (RFI) (published on December 7, 2016) provides OSHA's history with the issue of workplace violence in healthcare and social assistance, including a discussion of the Guidelines that were initially published in 1996, a 2014 update to the Guidelines, and the recently published tools and strategies that were shared with OSHA by healthcare facilities with effective violence prevention programs. It also discusses the Agency's use of 5(a)(1) in enforcement cases in healthcare. The RFI solicited information primarily from health care employers, workers and other subject matter experts on impacts of violence, prevention strategies, and other information that will be useful to the Agency if it decides to move forward in rulemaking. OSHA will also solicit information from stakeholders, including state officials, employers and workers, in the nine states that require certain healthcare facilities to have some type of workplace violence prevention program.  The agency has been petitioned for a standard preventing workplace violence in healthcare by a broad coalition of labor unions, and in a separate petition by the National Nurses United.  On January 10, 2017, OSHA granted the petition.