2025 SESSION

INTRODUCED

24100846D

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 22

Offered January 10, 2024

Prefiled January 9, 2024

Directing the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to study the capacity and condition of skilled nursing, long-term care, and community care facilities within the Commonwealth. Report.

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Patron—Walker

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Referred to Committee on Studies Subcommittee

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WHEREAS, the Southside Virginia Training Center, Northern Virginia Training Center, Southwestern Virginia Training Center, and Central Virginia Training Center have all closed permanently within the past nine years; and

WHEREAS, according to the 2022 population estimates by the United States Census Bureau, 16.9 percent of Commonwealth residents are 65 years old or older and 8.3 percent of Commonwealth residents are younger than 65 and have a disability; and

WHEREAS, according to an October 2023 survey by the Virginia Health Care Association-Virginia Center for Assisted Living, 44 percent of 170 nursing home and assisted living providers surveyed have had a hold on admissions at least once since June 1, 2023, and 39 percent of providers surveyed maintain a waiting list for new admissions; and

WHEREAS, the Hiram W. Davis Medical Center, a 94-bed medical and long-term care facility in Petersburg, is one of eight behavioral health facilities for adults operated by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and was built in 1974 and has had no major renovations since its construction; and

WHEREAS, access to skilled nursing, long-term care, and community care facilities depends on the capacity and condition of facilities such as the Hiram W. Davis Medical Center; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission be directed to study the capacity and condition of skilled nursing, long-term care, and community care facilities within the Commonwealth.

In conducting its study, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission shall (i) determine the need for long-term care in Virginia, (ii) approximate the current capacity of skilled nursing, long-term care, and community care facilities within the Commonwealth, (iii) examine the current condition of the infrastructure of such facilities, and (iv) provide recommendations for increasing the capacity and updating the infrastructure of such facilities.

All agencies of the Commonwealth shall provide assistance to the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission for this study, upon request.

The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission shall complete its meetings by November 30, 2024, and the chairman shall submit to the Division of Legislative Automated Systems an executive summary of its findings and recommendations no later than the first day of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly. The executive summary shall state whether the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission intends to submit to the General Assembly and the Governor a report of its findings and recommendations for publication as a House or Senate document. The executive summary and report shall be submitted as provided in the procedures of the Division of Legislative Automated Systems for the processing of legislative documents and reports and shall be posted on the General Assembly's website.