The news that Virginia’s governor wants to improve safety and quality at nursing homes should not surprise Health Commissioner Karen Shelton. She told a legislative committee that this state ranks 38th in the nation based on a national rating of one to five stars. The average in Virginia was 2.2, and complaints are coming in faster than inspectors can review them.
“In recent years we’ve had a general increase in the number and severity of our citations. We’ve had an increase, also, in the number of complaints in nursing homes over the last several years – 59% increase from 2018 to 2024. This year, over 954 complaints, which was greater than we had all of last year, and we do have a backlog on our complaints of over 1,000 right now that need investigation.”
One possible reason for the increase, she said, was a new system that enables people to report problems online, anonymously, but Shelton says understaffing is also a problem.
“All the complaints are investigated, but they are triaged as to severity," Shelton explains. "They will al be investigated. We have a backlog, because we’ve had a reduction in staff.”
The governor’s order calls for recruiting more inspectors, creating an advisory committee to suggest policies and practices that improve care and modernizing the licensing and inspection process using digital tools and artificial intelligence.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
