01/16/2015
After over a year without state-issued guidance, the Virginia Office of Licensure and Certification (“OLC”) has recently released updated guidance regarding nursing facilities (“NFs”) internal investigations of abuse, neglect, and misappropriation of residents’ property, including guidance on reporting such instances to appropriate authorities. The OLC withdrew prior guidance addressing these issues in 2013. The updated guidance includes new measures addressing immediate reporting to the OLC, updated definitions addressing misconduct, and other clarifying measures NFs should follow to ensure its investigations and reporting of misconduct adhere to federal and state law. In many cases, the updated guidance simply incorporates existing requirements from federal regulations that were not included in the OLC’s prior guidance document. However, while including these federal requirements, the OLC stresses that the updated guidance is not a replacement for complying with the laws and regulations regarding misconduct and the guidance cannot be relied upon to avoid a citation for noncompliance. The guidance is available on the OLC’s website at the following link: http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/OLC/Laws/index.htm.
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