Virginia nursing home responsiveness requirements

Virginia's mandated-reporter statute requires suspected abuse, neglect or exploitation of an adult to be reported IMMEDIATELY to the local department of social services or the APS hotline; a reporter who learns of it while providing professional services in a nursing facility may instead notify the person in charge, who must then report immediately under the facility's own policies.

Matters giving reason to suspect the abuse, neglect or exploitation of adults shall be reported immediately upon the reporting person's determination that there is such reason to suspect.

Requires the OLC complaint coordinator's name and telephone number, the Adult Protective Services toll-free number, and the State Ombudsman toll-free number to be conspicuously posted in a public place in the facility.

The name and telephone number of the complaint coordinator of the OLC, the Adult Protective Services toll-free telephone number, and the toll-free telephone number for the State Ombudsman shall be conspicuously posted in a public place.

Every nursing home resident must be free from mental and physical abuse and from chemical restraints, and (except in emergencies) from physical restraints absent a time-limited written physician order or a need to prevent injury.

Is free from mental and physical abuse and free from chemical and, except in emergencies, physical restraints except as authorized in writing by a physician for a specified and limited period of time or when necessary to protect the patient from injury to himself or to others

Virginia's only emergency physician-availability backstop: the facility's medical director must furnish physician services in an emergency when the resident's attending physician cannot be reached.

Providing physician services in case of emergency in the event that the resident's attending physician cannot be reached

The structural analog to the federal physician-services rule — every resident must be under a Virginia-licensed physician's care with a designated attending physician and a signed medical plan of care — but it contains NO 24-hour availability, on-call coverage, or call-response requirement.

Each resident shall be under the care of a physician licensed by the Virginia Board of Medicine.

Requires qualified nurses and certified nurse aides on all shifts, seven days a week, in numbers sufficient for assessed resident needs, with nursing care delivered directly by an RN or LPN except for tasks properly delegated by an RN; Virginia sets no numeric RN-hour or staffing-ratio minimum and no explicit 24-hour charge-nurse mandate.

The nursing facility shall provide qualified nurses and certified nurse aides on all shifts, seven days per week, in sufficient number to meet the assessed nursing care needs of all residents.

The closest Virginia analog to a duty to reach a clinician: the attending physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant and the resident's family or responsible party must be notified of any change in condition indicating a need to alter treatment — but no deadline is placed on the clinician to respond.

The attending physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant and the resident's family or responsible party shall be notified of any changes in a resident's condition which indicate a need to alter medical treatment.

Nursing home residents may associate and communicate privately with persons of their choice and send and receive personal mail unopened, unless medically contraindicated and documented in the medical record.

May associate and communicate privately with persons of his choice and send and receive his personal mail unopened, unless medically contraindicated as documented by his physician in his medical record

Requires at least one telephone in every area to which residents are admitted, plus additional telephones or extensions as necessary to ensure availability when needed.

At least one telephone shall be available in each area to which residents are admitted and additional telephones or extensions as are necessary to ensure availability in case of need.

Requires the facility to adopt and implement policies ensuring the resident rights defined in Va. Code §§ 32.1-138 and 32.1-138.1, to give residents copies on admission, and to review those rights with each resident (or legal representative) at least annually.

The nursing facility shall develop and implement policies and procedures that ensure a resident's rights as defined in §§ 32.1-138 and 32.1-138.1 of the Code of Virginia.

Requires a written emergency preparedness plan addressing natural disasters, fire and other disruptions, with defined staff responsibilities for alerting emergency personnel, evacuating residents including those with special needs, accessing resident emergency medical information and using community support services; staff must be trained, and the facility must notify the OLC of conditions and resident status as soon as possible during an emergency.

4. Accessing resident emergency medical information; and 5. Utilizing community support services.

Requires a quality assessment and assurance committee comprising the director of nursing services, a facility-designated physician and at least three other staff (one of whom can represent resident rights and concerns), meeting at least quarterly to identify quality-improvement issues and to develop and implement corrective plans of action, with documented compliance.

Meet at least quarterly to identify issues which would improve quality of care and services provided to residents

Requires the facility's governing-body-approved written policies and procedures, reviewed at least annually with a documented record of the review, to include quality assurance and infection control and prevention.

Quality assurance and infection control and prevention;