Virginia's health department crisis is at least 20 years in the making
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Nurses waiting to administer COVID shots at a Virginia vaccination clinic in 2021. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
The Virginia Department of Health is mismanaging its money while facing staffing shortages so severe that it's failing to provide timely oversight of nursing homes, per a report released last week.
Why it matters: The state watchdog, known as JLARC, flagged some of these issues to the General Assembly 20 years ago and stated that not fixing them could affect VDH's ability to provide public health services.
- That includes immunizations, reducing suicide rates, responding to drug overdoses and more.
Catch up quick: Legislators gave VDH renewed focus this past year after the agency's Office of Emergency Medical Services was caught up in an embezzling scandal and failed to make $33 million in required payments.
- The JLARC report re-upped those overspending concerns, honed in on the staff turnover and found that 40% of Virginia's nursing homes hadn't been inspected in the last two years.
- Gov. Youngkin's spokesperson Christian Martinez said the administration inherited "significant, longstanding, and very troubling" issues at VDH, which the agency is working to address.
- One lawmaker called the report "shocking and disturbing," per the Virginia Mercury.
Yes, but: Another JLARC report warned about most of these problems, and the risk of them worsening, in 2000.
- It mentioned how constant turnover in leadership and key management positions affected VDH's ability to operate in the 1990s.
- Funding challenges affected their ability to properly scale up staffing, which in turn delayed timely inspections of nursing homes.
- Per the report, those funding problems were partly due to the state's limited public health spending — which would later lead VDH to increasingly rely on federal dollars and grants.
For example, a Richmond Times-Dispatch analysis in 2022 found that Virginia was spending less on public health per person in 2020 (about $85) than it was in 2000 when adjusted for inflation.
- The RTD also found that without the federal COVID relief money, VDH likely wouldn't have been able to adequately respond to the pandemic.
- Meanwhile, State Board of Health members in 2020 were increasingly concerned about how little support public health was receiving in the legislature.
Sabrina's thought bubble: VDH's issues didn't start with the pandemic, and they likely won't be fixed without legislators making public health a long-term, bipartisan priority — which might be challenging as trust in it has eroded.