Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services
 
Board
State Board of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services
 
Guidance Document Change: The purpose of this memorandum is to remind DBHDS licensed providers of the requirements and expectations for reporting serious incidents to the DBHDS Office of Licensing, pursuant to 12VAC35-46-1070.C. and 12VAC35-105-160.D.2., including the timeframe for reporting incidents; the process for reporting incidents; the allowable timeframe for adding to, amending, or correcting information reported to the Office of Licensing through the Computerized Human Rights Information System (CHRIS); and to inform providers of the processes that the Office of Licensing will follow for issuing citations, repeat citations and sanctions for violations of serious incident reporting requirements. In addition to ensuring all providers understand the regulatory requirements associated with reporting incidents, the processes outlined in this memo are central to the department’s efforts to address compliance indicators related to serious incident reporting as mandated by the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Settlement Agreement with Virginia.
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7/14/20  2:20 pm
Commenter: Rebecca Cash, Valley Community Services Board

Progressive Citations & Reporting Requirements
 

• Please provide clarification regarding two year time frame for tracking citations. When does the two years start –effective date of guidance being approved? Is this a rolling two years, fiscal year, calendar year, etc.? 

• If the expectation is for providers to have all reports entered on CHRIS within 24 hours 100% of the time with little allowance for extenuating circumstances per this guidance, then a representative from DBHDS should be available 24/7 to read these reports and be available via phone call if needed to take a report. Access to Internet to complete CHRIS or email IMU is not always available particularly for rural  communities.

• Please consider an agency’s size when having progressive citations due to late reporting. For larger agencies, a percentage may be a more fair, accurate way of identifying systemic issues with late reporting. It seems that it would be more beneficial to both DBHDS, community providers, and the individuals served to truly focus on systemic issues based on patterns and trends of non-compliance.

• The requirement for updates to CHRIS to be entered within 48 hours is very strict. Often times these updates are dependent on obtaining information from external sources (hospital, psychiatric facilities, etc.) which is outside of the provider’s control.

• In regards to progressive citations, please detail the steps that providers can take if issued provisional license to come back in to good standing.

• There are significant concerns that these additional guidance documents are essentially being treated as another set of regulations to be followed. It seems that technical assistance has been replaced with citations.

• Overall, there are concerns regarding the punitive language of the guidance which leaves little allowance for human error and does not foster a collaborative relationship between DBHDS and community providers in order to best meet the needs of the individuals we serve.  It is also extremely discouraging to providers to have the guidance document already be in effect prior to the public comment. It is unclear how this guidance ultimately improves the quality of services being provided as it places additional administrative burdens and resulting financial costs on CSBs.

CommentID: 83889