If Virginians agree that their loved ones deserve to receive the care they have been promised in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and we all know from collective experience that in many many facilities that is not happening, what can we do about it?
Let’s start by considering what happens to a bad driver if she continues to cause havoc, pain, injury and despair to others traveling with her on Virginia highways.
The driver will:
- Get tickets or criminal charges filed against her for negligent or reckless driving
- Be held to account in short order, by a local judge for these criminal charges
- Be required to pay fines, penalties, attorneys fees, and likely endure increased insurance rates
- She may be jailed
- She will lose her car insurance
- Eventually the Commonwealth of Virginia will suspend her driving privileges
- She will be sued for the injuries and property damage she causes – and there is no cap to the recovery sought
- She may lose her job because she can no longer get to work in a timely manner
There is a system of civil, criminal, and administrative laws and rules that hold this bad driver accountable from multiple angles. The Commonwealth of Virginia (DMV) can take her license. Her insurance company can refuse to provide legally mandated insurance. She will have to pay the courts fines and penalties related to her bad behavior. She will have to miss work to attend court, may even be jailed for her recklessness.
Now, let’s compare both the damage one bad driver can do, and the level of civil, criminal and administrative accountability in Virginia, to the damage one bad nursing home can do, and the level of civil, criminal and administrative accountability to that facility’s ownership in Virginia.
If a nursing home is understaffed (on purpose to increase profits) and a patient is injured, even dies because of the negligent care, the owners of the facility will:
- Not be charged criminally
- Will not be harmed financially by any kind of lawsuit (because either their insurance pays or they don’t have insurance and they dare lawyers to spend years in court with forensic accountants to look for the assets they have hidden)
- No lawsuit will provide immediate accountability – they usually take 2- 3 years to work up
- No one goes to jail
- No one gets fired
- The Commonwealth of Virginia doesn’t take their license to operate away
- A lawsuit doesn’t change how they do business, or impact their bottom line
Well, then – there seems to be a need for stronger, clear laws that hold bad facilities to account ore like the laws that hold bad drivers to account.
These laws may involve the civil justice system, insurance requirements, administrative penalties, and even criminal charges when appropriate. The goal for such guardrail laws would be to ensure bad facilities are no longer allowed to remain open and hurt patients all while raking in large profits.
Some good news is that there are both Republican and Democratic law makers in Richmond right now, dedicated to making these new laws happen. BUT, they aren’t the only ones who vote – so it is important for you to be loud, and demand action yourselves.
Here is what you can and should do:
-
VISIT https://whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov/ and fill out your complete home address to out who your law-makers are in Richmond.
-
Write down the phone numbers or email addresses of your STATE DELEGATE / STATE SENATOR
-
Call or email their offices THIS WEEK OR NEXT and say something like the following (feel free to cut and paste my words, but add your own experience as well):
I am a resident of your district. I believe that for profit nursing homes and other long term care facilities like assisted living and memory care, should be held to account when their choices to put profits over people harm patients. I believe the Commonwealth of Virginia should have the administrative right to levy impactful fines and remove licenses quickly when patient care is at issue. I believe in laws that protect patients, like mandatory insurance and staffing ratios to insure patient care is a priority. As such, I hope will you vote YES on the following bills this Session:
SB535 from Senator Mark Obenshain – that require liability insurance for nursing homes
SB 536 from Senator Mark Obenshain – that related to malpractice cases and interest
HB 605 from Rodney Willett, that requires minimum staffing in nursing homes
HB 717 from Rodney Willett that provides penalties for nursing home operators who hide information from Virginia Department of Health
HB 1104 from M. Keith Hodges that allows the Commonwealth to revoke or suspend licenses of nursing homes that fail to report patient incidents and violations of law
SB 409 from Jennifer Boysko that allows families to place cameras in assisted living rooms to monitor their loved ones care
SB 555 from Glen Sturtevant, Jr. that increases the Commonwealth’s power to penalize bad financial practices
Signed,
Your constituent
Then, you can tell your state Senator and Delegate why it matters to you. Tell them your story, and ask for a call back from a Legislative Aid.
Will this take 30 minutes of your time? Yes. But it’s 30 minutes that could help your neighbors, and your family in the future. And it gets to the real issue – that we don’t have laws to hold these bad facilities to account. We need them, and we need them now.
Lauren
(stay tuned for part III over the next three weeks where I report back on who voted against these common sense, bi partisan laws).
