VA Long-Term Care Ombudsman Quick Facts

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Quick Facts

Virginia has a total of 63,642 long term care beds.
There are 279 licensed nursing homes with a total of 31,770 beds.
There are 558 licensed assisted living facilities with a total of 31,872 beds.
There are 20 Local Ombudsman Offices located in area agencies on aging in various areas of the state.
There are 31 Local Ombudsman paid staff, many of whom are part-time, the equivalent of 24.43 FTEs.
Of the Local Ombudsman staff, only 16 of the total 31 are full-time.
The Program services are supported and extended by the additional work of 83 trained volunteer Ombudsmen who donated approximately 13,500 hours in FFY 2010.
(Updated January 2011)

The Virginia Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program provided the following services in Federal Fiscal Year 2010:

12,943 information & consultations to individuals
1,786 consultations to facilities
464 meetings with resident & family councils
168 community education events
116 trainings for facility staff
2,781 complaints investigated with an 81% resolution rate

Complaint Settings FFY 2010:

Of all closed complaint investigations:

81% were in Nursing Homes (77% in FFY '09),

18% were in Assisted Living Facilities (22% in FFY '09), and

1 % were in Other Settings (same as FFY '09).

Top 10 Nursing Home Complaints received by the Ombudsman Program in FFY 2010:

Discharge/eviction - planning, notice, procedure, implementation, including abandonment;
Failure to respond to requests for assistance;
Personal Hygiene and adequacy of dressing & grooming;
Dignity, respect - staff attitudes;
Accidental or injury of unknown origin, falls, improper handling;
Symptoms unattended, including pain, pain not managed, no notice to others of changes in condition;
Medications - administration, organization;
Food service - quantity, quality, variation, choice, condiments, utensils, menu;
Personal property lost, stolen, used by others, destroyed, withheld from resident; and
Equipment/Buildings - disrepair, hazard, poor lighting, fire safety, not secure. (Note: Numbers 9 & 10 were tied)

Compared to FFY 2009, complaints regarding 'toileting & incontinent care' dropped from the Top 10 complaints while complaints concerning 'Equipment/Buildings - disrepair, hazard, poor lighting, fire safety, not secure' (which did not appear in the Top 10 FFY 2009) rose to the Top 10.

Top 10 Assisted Living Facilities Complaints received by the Ombudsman Program in FFY 2010:

Medications - administration, organization;
Equipment/building - disrepair, hazard, poor lights, fire safety, not secure;
Personal hygiene and adequacy of dressing & grooming;
Food service - quantity, quality, variation, choice, condiments, utensils, menu;
Discharge/eviction - planning, notice, procedure, implementation, including abandonment;
Personal property lost, stolen, used by others, destroyed, withheld from resident;
Dignity, respect - staff attitudes;
Care plan / resident assessment - inadequate, failure to follow plan or physician orders;
Activities - choice and appropriateness; and
Cleanliness, pests, general housekeeping. (Note: Numbers 7, 8, 9, & 10 were tied)

Compared to FFY 2009, complaints regarding 'Failure to respond to requests for assistance' and 'Staff unresponsive, unavailable' which was tied with 'Air / environment - temperature & quality (heating, cooling, ventilation, water)' dropped from the Top 10 complaints, while complaints concerning 'Equipment/Buildings - disrepair, hazard, poor lighting, fire safety, not secure' and 'Discharge / Eviction - planning, notice, procedure, implementation, including abandonment' (which did not appear in the top 10 FFY 2009) rose to the Top 10 list.

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