Greetings!

On May 1 the Daily Press and the Virginian Pilot published a story by Dave Ress with the headline: “Frequent injuries, low staffing persist in Hampton Roads nursing homes.” The article ran in print editions of those papers today. You can read the article here . We are not providing direct links to the articles to prevent them from getting additional traffic from you.

 

The headline, photos accompanying the article, and cases of resident care pulled from inspection reports are graphic. We know that articles like this fail to tell the whole story of nursing center care. They use examples culled from hundreds and hundreds of inspection reports without mentioning the gains in quality over time or the selfless service your staff provide every day to Virginia’s frailest residents.

 

Obviously, the safety of the residents and patients in our nursing centers is our number one priority, and something I know you all take very seriously. Given the publication of this story in two major daily papers, we want to brief you on what we know about it, the steps we are taking to respond, and provide you with resources to help you should you get any questions from your staff, residents, or family members.

 

Background

 

In mid-March we were contacted by a member requesting help regarding an inquiry they received from reporter Dave Ress about nursing facility staffing. We provided talking points and other information to help them respond. The reporter subsequently contacted VHCA-VCAL directly with a series of questions about quality of care, staffing, and reimbursement. The team discussed how to respond to these questions and consulted with our strategic communications partners at McGuire Woods Consulting. We determined that it would be worthwhile to have a broad discussion with the reporter to educate him about nursing facility quality in general, the decades-long poor reimbursement rates provided by the Commonwealth, and our belief that there is not one-size-fits all approach to addressing these challenges.

 

Dave Ress met with VHCA-VCAL staff on March 27 for over 90 minutes. As the conversation began, it was evident that he had already spent significant time reviewing VHI and CMS data. He mentioned that he began examining the issue of nursing facility care because he had been contacted by a family advocate. We were aware of this family advocate and the group she established based on information members shared with us last fall. 

 

From the outset we did not anticipate that we would see a positive article. We did feel a duty to speak up on your behalf and educate him before he finalized his article.

 

Next Steps

 

We are executing the following multi-pronged response:

 

Resources

As we reminded you last year when we saw the slew of attack ads, we encourage you to remain positive. It is important to communicate clearly with your key audiences, and where possible, work to generate positive media coverage. 

We have drafted the following letters that you can tailor to communicate with your staff, residents, and families.

We welcome your feedback and comments on our approach. If you have any questions or need any additional support, please reach out to our Vice President of Strategy and Communications Amy Hewett. She can be reached at (804) 212-1691 or [email protected] .

 

Sincerely,

Keith Hare

President and CEO

Virginia Health Care Association - Virginia Center for Assisted Living