Delaware among states that struggle to provide nursing home oversight. What we know
A recent congressional investigation found that many states, including Delaware, have a backlog of nursing home inspections due to a lack of federal funding, which has prevented states from having the necessary amount of inspectors.
The report, published Thursday, from the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging found 31 states and the District of Columbia had inspection staff vacancy rates above 20% on average. Delaware, which was referenced several times in this report, had a vacancy of 38% in 2022.
As of March 2023, the overall Division of Health Care Quality vacancy rate was 10%, state officials told Delaware Online/The News Journal. The vacancy rate for long-term care surveyors was 14%.
This investigation confirmed reporting from Delaware Online/The News Journal this spring, which found that the Division of Health Care Quality has struggled to investigate complaints for both nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
This report did not focus on assisted living facilities, since they do not receive federal oversight.
READ THE INVESTIGATION HERE: She was a geriatric nurse. Why did it take Delaware so long to realize she was neglected?
What's happening specifically in Delaware?
Delaware Online/The News Journal found:
The Division of Health Care Quality, as of March, had 1,474 complaints for nursing homes and assisted living facilities in its backlog. Data analyzed by The News Journal shows that since 2013, assisted living complaints are overall often investigated less than nursing homes.
From 2013 to 2021, an average of about 22% of the assisted living complaints filed were investigated by the state each year. Nursing home complaints, in comparison, had an average investigation rate of about 49% in that time period.
The state has chronically struggled with hiring and retaining staff to investigate these facilities, in part because of low salaries. The division has asked for additional funding in recent years but has been repeatedly denied by the governor’s office.
The congressional report revealed that 8 of 21 Delaware surveyor positions were vacant. The state wrote that “prior to the pandemic, staffing was a major challenge.”
“The pandemic has made an already grim situation even worse,” Delaware officials stated in the report, adding that training new hires due to lack of experienced staff adds another layer of difficulty.
BACKGROUND: Where are the inspectors? How a lack of nursing home oversight is endangering residents.
“The State said, ‘the cumulative effect is that the required survey workload is not completed in a timely manner, the exception being urgent situations like those that involve immediate jeopardy,’” according to the report.
Delaware also found, according to the report, that nurses working as state surveyors could earn $10,000 to $20,000 more annually in the private sector.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware among states that struggle to provide nursing home oversight