It is imperative we think of the people we aim to serve, our residents! By placing increasing costs on people attempting to run affordable, good quality Assisted Living to the less affluent ,will hurt the facilities. There is allready a crisis in Virginia for mainstream folks to go. The smaller family owner operators are closing their doors and others are moving out of state where there is no exam. These smaller homes have been home to many for years. Without them, it will result in more homeless people and people with no one to turn to. On a daily basis I receive calls from people with limited income with no where to go.

I have no objection to a State Examination but do not beleive the National Exam will benifit anyone and I have worked in other states.

We need to wake up the crisis is allready here!

Thank you for your consideration on this.

June King

I strongly suggest the experience requirements for AL administrator licensure be reduced if not entirely eliminated.  In my opinion, it is the responsibility of the Licensed AL facility to hire competant individual(s) to serve as administrator of the facility not the State.  The only state imposed requirement should be the sucessful completion of an accepted AL licensing examination. 

There is no way to ensure that a person is a competant administrator based upon how much experience they have.  There are incompetant administrators who meet the current experience requirements as well as administrators in place for less than a year who are very competent.  Both of which could probably get a passing grade on  the state exam. 

If the elimination of the experience requirement does not occur, it should at least be reduced to "6 months to one year of the past ten years".  Many people have excellent experience as an administrator in years prior to the "past 4 years".    The requirements are too restrictive and will prohibit many good candidates from getting licensed in a timely manner. 

Thank you for the opportunity to express my opinion on this very important matter.

I fully support the reduction of the experience requirment for both Administrators and Preceptors.

I strongly support elim. the national exam and mandated time frames of experience.  A state exam is what is needed.  The unfortunate aspect is that some have taken or put time into the national exam.  Who pays for this?  I have a 70% AG home.  That is less than $36.00 a day per person.  To require the fees, exam fees, etc. only puts further strains on a strained system.  Virginia ranks lasts in what it pays Court appointed Counsel (I used to do this).  I would imagine that it is near the bottom in the AG rate of $1,075.00.  Instead of using resources to make sure there is "qualified staff" due to a few bad facilites (or homes) as reported in the Washington Post, why not spend that money on residents and the care being provided by the faciliities.  Any facility that cares about its imagine is not going to hire an administrator who cannot operate such.  The owner is more than competent to determine who is a "qualified administrator."  For those that are not qualified, the local DSS licensing specialist should be working with the facmility to correct the problems or seeking other alternative measures.  If only the Washington Post had focused on the many 100's of homes and facilities who were doing the right thing, we would be better allocating our resources in 2008.  Instead, a few places were written about and now, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands is being spent in studies, legislation, by faciliteis to comply with the legislation, when most of the problems were isolated to begin with.  A natonal exam is not the answer and neither is mandated time requirements that will prevent many qualified people in the future from obtaining these positions where good could be done.

I support the reduction in experience for Assisted Living Administors and elimination of a national exam.   Quit making it hard on those of us who really care about what we do.  I have been an administrator since 2000 and I believe if my company thought I was incompetent, I would not have held the position so long. Thank you.

I passed the exam on May 28th, and while preparing I learned so much.  Examples:  Autonomy is the primary focus, national record keeping standards, ADA requirements for existing buildings and so much more.  Studying for the exam broadened my knowledge as a practicing administrator.  We all had enough time to prepare and take this industry to a higher level of accountability.

If you should reduce the experience requirements for persons seeking licensure as an Assisted Living Facility Administrator you would be executing a great injustice to our residents, families and the assisted living industry.

I have been an administrator for six and half years, worked in the facility for almost twelve years.  I have taken the Caregivers Credentialing course certified by the state and I have just recently passed the National Administrators Licensing Exam.  Did I enjoy all the stress and extra time it took to study information that was new to me, no, but I did learn needed and valuable information for me to operate the facility.  To me that is worth all the time I put in.  The assisted living facilities are accepting residents who are in need of much more care and assistance, very close to what  a nursing home would take as a resident.  Why not be proactive and be ahead of just passing needed qualifications.  It is envitable that assisted living is going to be as structured and licensed similar to a nursing home.  What will happen then to all the residents when the people running the facilities are so far behind, that they can't catch up to the requirements? The cost of designing a state exam is not fesible.  Where is that money coming from and who will end up paying for that? 

How  did this come about?The current general concenses is that regulations need to be more user friendly.Many operators are going out of business ,as the need continues to grow stronger.The outlook of a.g.homes are bleek as costs continue to esculate.We are mandated by min wage to increase by 70 cents per hour ,while the state passes on the s.s.i.increase to a.g. for 50cents a day and the state claims they give you a raise. A good course for the state to help and preserve a.g. facilities would help.No one wants to continue to do this because of the current regulations, and more to come. I think if your are a current administrator and you pass your licensure study ,you should automatically qualify to be grandfathered in .That should demonstrate you are competent to be an administrator and the state can issue a license as well as take it away.

We are not considered long term care ,but we are being governed by long term care baord.

We are not considered a nursing  facilty but are governed by the board of nursing .D.S.S. website clearly states we are  {non-medical } facilty.

Thanks again for the opportunity to express my views .I hope this helps you and you can help us .

As an LPN and previously taken the DSS approved Assisted Living Administration Caregivers Credentializing Center 125 hour program for Assisted Living Administration,  I stongly oppose the new regulations.  I am not able to be "grandfathered in" according to the new guidelines. 

Currently, I am not in an Administative role, however I continue to work in Assisted Living and keep up with the new regulations to maintain compliance.   All the studying, long hours and research that I worked so hard for are now thrown out the window.

I would like to see a review and revision to clearly advise those of us who are qualified to go further in an Administrative role but choose not to at this time.

Thank you for your time.

In my opinion, it is the responsibility of the Licensed AL facility to hire competant individual(s) to serve as administrator of the facility not the State.

Angelina

www.treatmentcenters.org/virginia

One other aspect, if you are going to treat us as a medical model, then find funding like medical models receive.  My 75% AG home is struggling to keep pace with all the regulations, including this requirement, so we can fit the medical model.  I have two people taking the test.  Two study guides costs over $400.00.  With the test costs and study time, where does it end?  Stop stating we are a social model only to pass regulation upon regulation that fits the medical model concept.  For those homes with all private pay, new found regulations can be dealt with with added employees.  What does it matter to them?  But with fuel costs twice what they were 1 1/2 years ago, food costs up 12%, electric applying for 26 % rate increases, natural gas through the roof, min. wage just went up and set to go up another 70 cents per hour per emplyee within a year, WHAT ARE WE TO DO?    WE NEED HELP WITH FUNDING, not more regulaitons.  CAN'T ANYONE SEE THAT?