H.B. 414 Dental Hygienist Amendments: transcript

Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee members currently dental hygienists can PR practice in certain, uh, facilities without the general supervision of a dentist. These are public health settings. They include a nursing home, a school assisted living, community health center. Federally qualified health center concept is, many patients in those settings are not gonna get ridden regular dental care, but at least they can get a hygienist, go in and clean their teeth and help them have some, some dental care. All this bill does, it just says we're gonna allow them to go into a hospital. The hospitals don't have to allow them, but it's permissive that they can go in, in a public health setting that will now include hospitals. That's my presentation. Alright. Thank you, representative.

Chair. Dave Guest with Utah Hospital Association. We support this bill. Let me give you just a specific example. I, I volunteer with my wife at Primary Children's Hospital every week. And you might not know that there are children that literally live in the hospital for months, sometimes years, because of a heart, Canadian heart transplants or other serious things. So having this option if they want it, would really bless those, uh, patients. So, thank you.

Eliana White, Utah Dental Hygienist Association. Just wanna thank Representative Dunnigan and the Hospital Association for, um, allowing, allowing us to work with patients in hospitals when needed.

I move that we favorably recommend HB four 14. Okay.

All right. Uh, well, uh, Representative Dunnigan, I will waive and request consideration of consent if the committee chooses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So currently the dental hygienist can practice without the general supervision of a dentist in certain public health settings such as a, a school, a nursing home, an assisted living or community health center Concept of that is, these are areas that are probably underserved for a lot of dental care. So we allow the hygienists to go in and help people at least clean their teeth. So what this bill does is it adds one other category to a public health setting, and that would be a hospital. So a dental genist hygienists will be able to go into the hospital. Sometimes people in the hospital are there for weeks or months and they get no or little dental care. And this would allow the hygienist to go in and provide dental care. That's what the, that's all the bill does. It's supported by the Hospital association. Thank you. Come back to the committee for any clarifying questions.

Uh, most favorably recommend HB 4 1 4 Digital amendments.

I'd appreciate consideration of consent.

I, I, I guess the last question, has there been any opposition?

No. Um, I'll waive summation.

Chair. Um, I'd move that we put HB four 14 on consent. Motion is to put the, uh, the bill on consent. It has a zero fiscal notes that would qualify.

That request position. I appreciate it.

Representative Dunnigan. Thank you Mr. Speaker.

Currently, dental hygienists can practice without the general supervision of a dentist in a public health setting, such as nursing homes, community health center assisted living. This bill does one thing. It adds hospitals to that list so they'll be able to do their, uh, provide dental care in a hospital. This is supported by the Utah Hospital Association. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you Mr. President. Um, we hear a lot of sad stories up here. One of the saddest ones I've heard this session is, uh, these children with lung problems at, uh, at Primary Children's and other hospitals, they'll have tubes down their throat sometimes for months at a time. And if they don't have hygienists come and clean their teeth, their their teeth will start rotting on them. So this bill, uh, simply modifies the definition of public health setting to include a hospital to allow a dental hygienist to practice in a hospital without general supervision from a dentist. And with that, I move that house. Bill four 14 pass.

Senator Vickers Baldry Aye. Lewin Aye. Bramer Bus Comore es. Camilla Aye. Fillmore Grover Harper Kinins Ipson Johnson Quan McKay Mikel Milner Musman Owens Pitcher Plum Rebe Sandal Stevenson Stratton Vickers Weiler Wilson Winterton, president Adams Aye.

Thank you Mr. President. Uh, a state recognized scenic byway cannot be adopted