Complaints about living conditions in Virginia nursing homes go uninspected

HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Lack of oversight of nursing homes in Virginia is causing frustration among people worried about their loved ones in long-term care facilities.

They file complaints with the state to raise concerns about safety issues, quality of care and conditions in facilities, but they wait 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 feels bad thinking about her husband’s brief stay at the Westport Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Henrico County.

“Every day was a new horror,” Tyler told CBS 6. “Absolutely pathetic, disgusting, deplorable. Any horrible word you can think of is the right word.”

She took Earl Tyler into a nursing home in January of this year because he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, narcolepsy and incontinence.

Since Earl is a veteran, she said she found Westport because it was a VA-contracted facility.

But she said she immediately became concerned about the cleanliness of her room.

WTVR

“I mean, you can see the marks on the wall and the dirt around the edges,” Tyler said, showing CBS 6 photos she took of the conditions.

One day, Tyler said she found Earl covered in his own urine.

“He was sitting there, holding his leather belt in his hand, it was dripping, and I was looking at him,” Tyler said. “It was the same clothes I had put on him at 11 o’clock the night before, the same underwear I had put on him at 11 o’clock the night before. He was soaked from elbows to knees.”

She said her concerns intensified after she discovered Earl had fallen twice and on one occasion was unable to move his hand, prompting Tyler to take him to the emergency room.

“He reached out, and his hand was kind of curled up and it was shaking. And he was like, ‘What happened to your hand?'” Tyler recalled.

The final straw, she said, was when she discovered marks on Earl’s body, including what she said were bruises and a cut on his head.

Tyler claimed that staff members were unaware of the markings and could not explain them.

“I was really, really angry, incredibly angry,” Tyler said. “I cried. I cried, cried, cried.”

After just 19 days, Tyler decided to remove her husband from the facility.

CBS 6 has contacted the Westport Rehabilitation and Nursing Center multiple times to request a response to Tyler’s allegations and is still awaiting a response.

Delays in investigations: “They must be held responsible”

Shortly after firing Earl, Tyler said she worked with an advocate from the state’s long-term care ombudsman program to file a complaint with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH), the state agency responsible for inspecting nursing homes for compliance with government regulations.

That was in January. It is now September and Tyler said VDH has taken no action on his claims.

When CBS 6 reached out to VDH about Tyler’s concerns, a spokesperson said the agency had no update on the status of his complaint.

“Get moving and do something about it. Hold people accountable. Make them accountable,” Tyler said.

His frustrations are very similar to those of Steve Lambert.

Last month, CBS 6 reported that it took eight months for VDH to investigate complaints Lambert filed about Westport out of concern about the conditions his brother was facing.

Virginia Man Says It Took State 8 Months To Investigate ‘Horrible’ Conditions At Nursing Homes

Lambert’s brother died before the VDH opened the investigation.

As a former head of licensing, enforcement and regulation for facilities under the supervision of the Virginia Department of Human Services, Lambert said the VDH’s response time was unacceptable.

“They need a system in place to provide appropriate oversight in a timely and effective manner to ensure that these vulnerable people are not harmed,” Lambert said.

Tyler heard Lambert’s story on the news and felt compelled to speak out as well.

“It was like a gift from heaven,” Tyler said. “I was like, ‘Wow, someone’s guiding me. This is divine intervention, someone telling me, ‘Turn on this TV and turn on this channel.’”

A failure to comply with federal standards

Federal investigative standards prioritize allegations about nursing homes.

According to guidelines set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), complaints rated even at the lowest severity levels must be addressed within 45 days or as a potential area of ​​focus during the facility’s next on-site inspection. Westport has undergone at least two on-site inspections since Tyler filed his complaint.

As CBS 6 previously reported, the VDH has a 40% vacancy rate for long-term care facility inspectors, also known as inspectors. Virginia has nearly 300 nursing homes and 29 inspectors to inspect them, according to data provided by the VDH.

Uninspected nursing homes: Virginia was ‘repeatedly’ warned of staffing constraints, report says

Compared to other states, Virginia has the fourth highest percentage of nursing homes overdue for recertification. CMS requires recertification inspections at least every 15 months.

Nearly 70% of Virginia nursing homes were behind schedule as of September. The national average is 22.4%.

Last month, CMS released its 2023 state agency performance assessment, and it showed that Virginia continues to struggle to improve the timeliness of its investigations and inspections, which have been negatively impacted by the pandemic.

The audit found that Virginia had not shown improvement in reducing overdue inspections from the previous year and had not met standards for launching timely investigations into the most serious complaints.

The CMS requires states to investigate allegations that threaten a person’s immediate safety within three days, but Virginia failed to meet that standard at least 80 percent of the time.

VDH declined several interview requests to discuss these topics.

A CMS spokesperson said state agencies are struggling because Congress has not increased funding for its inspection program since 2015, despite a surge in complaints about nursing homes.

As a result, state agencies are understaffed and underresourced, which a congressional report says creates poor conditions in nursing homes.

“What can I do to get you some money?”

Tyler said she has been on the phone with several health department leaders, including the licensing director, the regulatory affairs director and aides in the health commissioner’s office.

“And everybody keeps saying, ‘We need funding, we need staff, we need funding, we need staff.’ Isn’t that what senators are for?” Tyler asked. “What can I do to get you money?”

She even wrote to U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner and Governor Glenn Youngkin to advocate for increased oversight and accountability of nursing homes.

Tyler also filed complaints with Veterans Affairs and Adult Protective Services.

She said she wants to share her concerns with “anyone who will listen,” but what she wants most is for state and federal officials to take urgent action to improve oversight and protect vulnerable nursing home residents.

“Everybody can tell you a horror story about it, and yet it’s accepted, or you just say, ‘Oh, this is horrible,’ and nothing happens. It’s really horrible, and something needs to be done,” Tyler said.

CBS 6 spoke with Sen. Tim Kaine and Gov. Glenn Youngkin and reached out to several other elected officials to ask how they are working to address nursing home oversight concerns.

This part of the story will air on Thursday, September 26.

CBS 6 is committed to sharing the community’s voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.