Virginia Hospitals Must Comply with New Workplace Violence Reporting Requirements

Update: July 27, 2026

Attention: Virginia’s Hospital Workplace Violence Reporting Law Has Changed, Effective July 1, 2026

Effective July 1, 2026, Virginia narrowed the applicability of its hospital workplace-violence reporting requirements from all entities licensed as hospitals in the Commonwealth to only those with an emergency department. The amendment also revised the recordkeeping and reporting requirements applicable to covered hospitals.

Under amended Va. Code § 32.1-127, hospitals with an emergency department must continue to maintain a workplace-violence incident reporting system, document voluntarily reported incidents, retain incident records for at least two years, and prohibit retaliation against employees who report workplace violence or seek assistance in response to an incident.

The amended statute also revised the definition of a covered hospital “employee.” The definition now includes health care providers credentialed by the hospital, providers engaged by the hospital to perform services on its premises, and contracted health care providers who are credentialed by or work in the hospital.

Each covered hospital must maintain records of reported incidents with the following information:   

1. The date and time of the incident;
2. A description of the incident, including:
   1. The job-title category of the affected employee;
   2. Whether the perpetrator was a patient, visitor, employee, or other person;
   3. The location category where the incident occurred;
   4. Whether the incident involved:
      1. A physical attack without a weapon;
      2. An attack with a weapon or object;
      3. A threat of physical force or use of a weapon or other object with the intent to cause bodily harm;
      4. Sexual assault or the threat of sexual assault; or
      5. Another type of incident not described above;
   5. The degree of physical injury to staff, categorized as:
      1. No injury;
      2. An injury not requiring medical treatment;
      3. An injury requiring medical treatment without admission;
      4. An injury requiring admission; and
      5. A fatality; and
   6. Whether hospital security, hospital law enforcement, or outside law enforcement was contacted to respond to the incident.

Covered hospitals must also provide the facility-level data to specified hospital leadership at least quarterly and annually submit facility-level data, in aggregate and with personally identifiable information removed, to the Virginia Department of Health.

Please contact a member of our Healthcare team for additional information regarding the amended law and its revised recordkeeping and reporting requirements.

Original Article: July 28, 2025

Effective July 1, hospitals and other healthcare institutions licensed in Virginia are required to establish a workplace violence reporting system to track, analyze and respond to incidents of workplace violence. Under the new requirements, healthcare entities must also report these incidents annually to the Virginia Department of Health in an aggregated manner.

Who must comply with Virginia’s new workplace violence reporting requirements?

The new requirements apply to a “hospital” licensed in Virginia pursuant to Article 1. Hospital and Nursing Home Licensure and Inspection, Chapter 5, Title 32.1 of the Code of Virginia. Virginia law defines as “hospital” as a licensed facility where the primary function of the facility is the diagnosis, treatment and provision of medical and nursing services to two or more unrelated individuals. In Virginia, hospitals include a variety of types of facilities, including children’s hospitals, sanatoriums, sanitariums and general, acute, rehabilitation, chronic disease, short-term, long-term, outpatient surgical, and inpatient or outpatient maternity hospitals.

Importantly, the law does not apply to healthcare entities that do not meet the Virginia definition of hospital. For example, it does not apply to outpatient medical practices, federally qualified health centers, nursing homes, or institutions licensed by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. However, it is still prudent for healthcare entities who are not subject to the law to maintain appropriate policies and procedures to address workplace violence.

What type of workplace violence must be tracked and reported?

Workplace violence means any act of violence or threat of violence, without regard to the intent of the perpetrator, that occurs against a hospital employee on hospital property. The broad definition includes threats or physical force used against an employee that results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, psychological trauma or stress. Actual physical injury is not required to qualify as workplace violence. The perpetrator could include any individual in the hospital, such as an employee, patient, visitor, or family member.

What are the key requirements of the law?

• Hospitals must maintain detailed records of each reported incident of workplace violence for a minimum of two years. Each incident report must include specific requirements, including the hospital’s response to the incident.
• The hospital must communicate its workplace reporting system to all employees. The hospital must educate employees on when and how to report incidents of workplace violence to their employer, security agencies and law enforcement authorities.
• Hospitals must adopt a policy that prohibits discrimination or retaliation against any employee for making a report of workplace violence or participating in any incident investigation, among other protected activities.

Take-aways: Workplace violence continues to pose a significant risk for healthcare workers and patient safety. Hospitals and other entities covered by this new law must take steps to update their policies and internal policies to ensure compliance. For more insight into this law, please see our recent What’s the Tea in L&E episode.

To understand how this law might impact your organization, please contact Liz Heddleston, Leah Stiegler, Lindsey Brock, or another member of the Woods Rogers team.