Category: Health Care
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Corruption, Ignorance Turn Deadly in the General Assembly
by James C. Sherlock Virginia Department of Health inspectors, on page 11 of 66 of a statement of deficiencies dated June 21, 2021, wrote of a gut-wrenching discovery. They found an incontinent patient at Autumn Care of Suffolk, a stroke victim unable to talk, tied to her bed by a staffer. She was terrified and…
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Nurse Staffing Laws Bringing Big Changes are On the Horizon
by James C. Sherlock In my lengthy series on Virginia’s nursing homes, I pointed out that many of them are understaffed with nurses, RNs in particular. I also pointed to a nationwide nurse shortage, due in part to burnout, that the training pipelines are not poised to fill. New York, Pennsylvania and Oregon are poised…
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Private Equity in Medicine
To add to those revealed in James Sherlock’s excellent posts about nursing homes and the health care industry generally, here is another culprit–private equity firms. They buy up medical practices in an area, creating great bargaining power with insurance companies, and begin raising prices. The fight is between giant, merged insurance companies and giant, merged…
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Nursing Shortages Require Better Oversight of Virginia Nursing Homes – Part Two – State Action Required
by James C. Sherlock Patterns of understaffing, medical harm and abuse in nursing homes are traceable: in some cases to a business model of understaffing to increase profits. Federal fines are built into the business models of the bad actors. Some of the worst post double-digit annual operating margins; in some to other systemic chain-wide…
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Nursing Shortages Require Better Oversight of Virginia Nursing Homes – Part One – The Problem
By James C Sherlock We have some great nursing facilities in Virginia. We also have far more than our share of bad ones. Virginia has a decision to make about the latter. The federal government sets standards for those that are paid with federal funds. It both levies fines and denies payments as it feels…
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Profound Registered Nurse Shortages in a Virginia Beach Nursing Home
By James C. Sherlock Registered nurses (RNs) both supervise medical treatment and are the primary medical care providers in nursing homes. Physicians are on call but generally are not present. One Virginia nursing home is currently advertising: RN’s Now hiring All Shifts! Pick your shift. Perhaps not good news for those patients. Some of the…
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Predatory Virginia Nursing Home Owners
by James C. Sherlock Merriam Webster: Pred*a*tor: (noun) one who injures or exploits others for personal gain or profit. The most medically vulnerable of us reside in skilled nursing facilities (SNF). Nobody plans to be there, but that is where about thirty thousand Virginians find themselves at any one time. People who are moved from hospitals…
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Past Time for Serious Sanctions for the Commonwealth’s Worst Nursing Homes
by James C. Sherlock Effective May 1 of this year, Karen Shelton M.D. became Virginia’s Health Commissioner. Dr. Shelton is now the licensor and regulator of Virginia’s nursing homes. By law, state-licensed nursing homes must comply with federal and state laws and standards. By regulation, the Health Commissioner “may impose such administrative sanctions or take such…
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No Clarity In This Process
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Here is another example of the utter inanity of this country’s medical care system and its financing. First, some background. I am covered by Medicare. I also have a Medicare supplement insurance policy issued by the Commonwealth of Virginia for retirees, administered by Anthem. (Good deal, by the way.) I chose to…
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Virginia’s Best Nursing Facilities
by James C. Sherlock This is part 4 of a series on nursing homes in Virginia. Part 1 here Part 2 here, Part 3 here. Medicare.gov curates and publishes a system of nursing home assessments that is outstanding in both design and execution. As discussed in earlier parts of this series, Virginia has far more…
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Virginia Nursing Home Regulations and Inspections – A Strategic Improvement Recommendation
By James C. Sherlock Those who read this blog know that Virginia has far more than its share of bad nursing homes. They just do not know what can or should be done about it. This third in a current series on Virginia nursing homes will take on a problem that is self-inflicted – the…
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A Supplement to James Sherlock’s Post
by Dick Hall-Sizemore James Sherlock has done yeoman’s work on this blog with his pointing out the failure of state government to adequately regulate the nursing homes in the Commonwealth. I commend him for his perseverance on this issue. In doing some research on the budget issues related to this topic, I encountered enough additional…
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No New Law or Regulation is Needed for VDH to Sanction Bad Nursing Homes
By James C. Sherlock This is Part 2 of this series. Part 1 is here. I will offer here a deeper sense of Virginia’s bad nursing homes. And of the historic lack of adequate regulation by the state. Start with the fact that even the worst of them are still open. Centers for Medicare &…
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Scandal in Plain Sight – Virginia’s Failed Regulation of Law-Avoiding Nursing Home Owners
by James C. Sherlock One of the most important and heart-wrenching decisions families make for their elderly loved ones is whether they are able to keep them in their homes as they get older and sicker. Sometimes that is not feasible for a long list of reasons in each case. More than 30,000 Virginians live…
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Sentara Does a Very Good Thing
by James C. Sherlock Sentara brass will not believe that I wrote that headline. We have a history. But right is right. A Sentara mobile care unit will start June 1 to provide primary care service two days a week in two separate locations in Petersburg. The people of Petersburg desperately need it. That city…