Dear Legislator, I adamantly oppose these bills that will cause my family potential harm . It is a safety issue. We have spent a fortune on our dental care, We do not want uneducated , unlicensed staff taking X-rays or cleaning our teeth. We love our dental hygienist. We spend more time with her than the dentist or our PCP! She reviews our vitals , medications and looks for cancer as well as thoroughly cleaning our teeth and providing care tips. Proper cleanings prevent gum disease and heart disease which are both present in our family history. Please do not reduce our family’s care. I see this other healthcare professions are facing g the same elimination. One can only speculate to what the goal of your bills if safety is not the main issue ? I vote No.

Good morning, madame chair and members of the subcommittee. My name is Josh Lesko and I am an emergency physician in Tidewater Virginia speaking on behalf of the Medical Society of Virginia. As a physician, I've witnessed firsthand the hidden epidemic of workplace violence in our emergency departments. In the last two years alone, I've seen colleagues punched in the groin, strangled with a phone, and even beaten unconscious. We've had a patient commit suicide in our waiting room with a gun in front of the staff, and another was killed by police after striking an employee with a gun. I have seen security guards slammed into walls and tackled by angry patients, and technicians assaulted to the point that they required stitches. Each of these events happened at a different hospital where I have worked. Today, these incidents are not publicly reported. Without accurate data, the problem remains invisible. This bill would require public-facing reporting, giving lawmakers the information needed to protect healthcare workers and address the burnout driven by repeated exposure to violence. I spend every minute of my shifts trying to save patients’ lives. The last lives I should need to worry about are my own and those of my staff. It is for these reasons that I am requesting your support for HB1489.