I love Williamsburg – and am sad that the residents of James City County are plagued by the same problems that other localities in Virginia are…. poor nursing home care.
Records reflect 83 year old woman had no skin problems – but family can tell by looking at her, that most of her leg is covered by sores, and infection. Infection is so bad, she develops sepsis and dies.
How does this happen? What does the department of Health do about it? We may never know the answer to the first question, but my guess is it happened because the for-profit Maryland Corporation that owns the nursing home, did not hire enough qualified nurses to provide the intense care required by the residents. The Department of health inspected the records, wrote a report – and that is it! Nothing more is done, and this is standard. How will the family work to effectuate change? They only have 3 options – (1) contact Department of Health at 1-800-055-1819 to complain; (2) lobby Richmond to change the penalities for negligent facilities and (3) file a lawsuit. Criminal charges are rarely filed in Virginia – in fact, I don’t know of a single case where elder neglect by a facility is charged as a crime in our Commonwealth.
Sad story – read more about this Williamsburg Family’s ordeal.