18 January 2008

New Vet Home Flunks Inspection

Its opening already delayed for at least two years, West Virginia's new, $26 million nursing home for military veterans has been refused an operating license "because of a host of problems, including failure to meet requirements for accident prevention and infection control," The Associated Press reports.

Picking up a story from The Clarksburg Exponent-Telegram (subscription required), the AP article said a 120-page report issued last week by the state Office of Health Facility Licensure and Certification details an array of problems.

They include "failure to meet requirements for therapeutic diets, care of pressure sores, vision and hearing, activities of daily living, menus and nutrition, quality of life, staffing and general maintenance," AP said.

Administrators "also failed to ensure that all job applicants were screened against the state's nurse aide abuse registry before they were hired," the article said.

"The staff is working diligently to resolve all the issues we need to resolve to get OHFLC back in there to issue a license," Joe Thornton, spokesman for the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, told AP. "I hesitate to give a specific date, but I hope by the end of this month we can resolve all the issues and ask for a re-inspection."

1 comment:

notlaw99 said...

Depending how you state government is set up It may not need a license.

For example in New Hampshire the State Veterans Home is a separate State Agency and can not be inspected by the N.H. Department of Health & Human Services because each agency is independent. They are inspected by the Veterans Administration but the relationship is so close that the quality of the inspection is questionable. One of the major problems is that the inspection checklist are so divergent that they only have a few areas in common for the inspection. And I can think of about 6 thing that the NH Veterans Home would fail if they were subject to inspection by the N.H. Depart of Health & Human Services.

So I had the distinct pleasure of being a resident in the only legally unlicensed long term health care facility in the State of New Hampshire for over 11 years.