The Virginia Department of Health is setting clearer guidelines for when serious or repeated problems at nursing homes should prompt state sanctions.
Why it matters: MultipleRichmond-area nursing homes have faced serious — and at times, deadly — deficiencies involving staffing, neglect and resident safety, as families and advocates urge the state to do more.
The big picture: VDH licenses privately operated facilities and conducts federal inspections for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
- And it already has the power to restrict admissions, suspend or revoke licenses, and pursue other sanctions againstVirginia’s nearly 300 nursing homes.
- But April Dovel, who began leading VDH’s nursing home oversight office in November, told Axios regulators lacked a consistent framework for decidingwhen to use state enforcement powers rather than rely on the federal process.
- Now, Dovel said, when facilities repeatedly fail to correct systemic problems, “we’re going to take action against your license, or restrict new admissions.”
The latest: VDH guidance released Monday, with public comment open through Sept. 9, lays out triggers for considering state sanctions.
- They include the same or similar violation on two consecutive inspections, the same violation three times within 18 months, and repeated failures to correct deficiencies.
- Multiple deficiencies in areas like quality of care can also prompt review, though enforcement decisions will remain case-specific.
Why now: Dovel said VDH’s oversight operation became “very reactionary, putting out fires” after pandemic-era staffing losses as complaints rose, inspections accumulated and inspector vacancies hit 40%.
- Then news coverage put a spotlight on the issues, she told Axios, helping build General Assembly support for more oversight resources “to prevent these things from occurring again.”
- That means more staff to find problems, and more capacity to create guidance for what to do about them.
Stunning stat: As of July, 58% of Virginia nursing homes hadn’t received a standard inspection in at least two years, the nation’s second-highest percentage, per ProPublica…