“The nuanced details really matter,” said Steven Littlehale, a gerontological clinical nurse specialist and chief innovation officer at Zimmet Healthcare Services Group.
Virginia’s use of payroll-based journal data plus its inclusion of nursing directors and others who perform administrative as counting toward the daily hours duties differs from other states. It also links the staffing requirement to facilities’ Medicaid value-based purchasing program.
“Simply put, [nursing homes] have financial incentives to meet the staffing requirement,” said Littlehale, an expert columnist at mcknights.com.