Every nursing home in the Commonwealth of Virginia is subject to the oversight of the Virginia Department of Health Office of Licensure as a condition of their license to operate in the Commonwealth. Among other things this department is tasked with investigating all complaints of possible violations of laws or regulations governing nursing homes.
Information about how to file a complaint against a nursing home in Virginia and prompt an investigation can be found on the Commonwealth’s website here:
https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/licensure-and-certification/complaint-unit/
There are two ways to report abuse or neglect of a nursing home resident:
1)You can call the Department at 1-800-955-1819
Or
2) You can fill out the Nursing Facility Complaint Form
https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/content/uploads/sites/96/2018/06/Nursing-Facility-Complaint-Form.doc
And mail it to:
VDH Office of Licensure and Certification
ATTN: Complaint Unit
9960 Mayland Drive, Suite 401
Henrico, VA 23233-1463
You can fax the complaint form to: (804)527-4503 or you can email the form to: OLC-Complaints@vdh.virginia.gov
You can report abuse or neglect anonymously but those reports must be made in writing. Simply leave the “person filling out complaint” section blank to file an anonymous report. We at Williams DeLoatche do not recommend anonymous reporting for a few reasons. In our experience the investigating agent is more thorough when they know a family member is going to be following up on the status of the investigation and is expecting a thorough investigation without concern for anonymity. Secondly, we prefer that the investigative agent have someone they can follow up with for questions or clarifications. Lastly, the nursing home is going to assume that a complaint about a resident is going to be from a family member anyway. Many clients fear “retaliation” for filing a complaint with the State. Our experience tells us the opposite is actually more likely. Once the facility understands that a family will make a complaint and demand an investigation into acts of abuse or neglect by the staff, they ae often more careful not to neglect that resident. In fact, in our experience, residents who do not have active, visiting, family advocates are far more likely to be neglected. They are also more likely to be seriously harmed before the neglect is revealed. Filing complaints with the State should be a relatively last resort and it should be done for serious issues that could or did harm an actual resident. Filing complaints for one cold meal or a lost sweater burdens the inspectors unnecessarily and causes delays for more serious concerns. However, if your loved one has had repeated falls, medication errors with injury, pressure injuries or serious infections we often recommend that a complaint be filed so that the licensing agency can do an investigation into the matter. While these inspections do not often lead to major fines and penalties if a facility has enough of them patterns can be identified and more serious action against the facility up to an including prohibiting new admissions until deficiencies are corrected can occur.
