HENRICO COUNTY, Va — Virginia’s lacking oversight of nursing homes is causing frustration among people worried for their loved ones in long-term care facilities.
They’re submitting complaints to the state to raise concerns about safety issues, quality of care, and facility conditions, but they’re waiting several months for the state to respond to those complaints.
‘Every day was a new horror’
Take Heather Tyler’s situation, for example.
She said she gets a sick feeling thinking about her husband’s brief stay at Westport Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Henrico County.
“Every day was a new horror,” Tyler told CBS 6. “Absolutely pitiful, disgusting, deplorable. Any words you can think of that’s horrendous is the word for it.”
She took Earl Tyler to the nursing home in January of this year, as he dealt with Alzheimer’s, narcolepsy, and incontinence.
Since Earl is a veteran, she said she found Westport due to it being a VA-contracted facility.
But she said she instantly became concerned with the cleanliness of his room.