Dear Commissioner Levine and Board of Health Members:

We respectfully submit these comments on behalf Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia (PPAV) during the Board’s rulemaking process to amend the regulations for the licensure of abortion facilities, 12 VAC 5 – 412. PPAV is the statewide 501c4 advocacy organization representing the three affiliates of Planned Parenthood in the Commonwealth of Virginia serving more than 25,000 patients each year.

The comments submitted here, incorporate by reference, all of the comments submitted by the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health.

12VAC5-412-110. Plan of correction

The plan of correction process does not allow for objections to be raised by the providers and to have items removed from inspection reports when there are errors in fact made by inspections or errors in the interpretation of the regulations or other administrative or clerical issues. As a result, the process to produce a plan of correction is required for items which may not be deficiencies. 

The Board should adopt a policy which allows providers to raise objections to items in inspection reports and remove those inaccurate items from inspection reports before a plan of correction is submitted.  

12VAC5-412-160. Policies and Procedures

In addition to items cited by the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health in this section of the regulations, we would like the Board to strike item 4. Item 4 requires the development and implementation of a policy for “[a]dmissions and discharges, including criteria for evaluating the patient before admission and before discharge.”

Licensed abortion providers neither admit nor discharge patients in the normal course of their practice and the requirement for maintenance of this policy is medically unnecessary and inappropriate.

12VAC5-412-200. Patient’s Rights

As currently adopted, the patient’s rights process is internally conflicting.

Part A requires the adoption of the Joint Commission Standards of Ambulatory Care.  The last sentence of Part A is inconsistent with the referenced Joint Commission Standard “Rights and Responsibilities of the Individual” and should be struck. Additionally, the Joint Commission Standard section “Rights and Responsibilities of the Individual” includes EOPs related to complaints. Therefore, parts B, C, D, E and F should be struck. Two separate sets of requirements that are not consistent creates confusion for providers.

Thank you for your consideration.