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Arlington Co. will hold July special election to fill late lawmaker’s board seat

Arlington County, Virginia, will hold a special election to fill the county board seat Erik Gutshall held before he died earlier this month.

An Arlington Circuit Court Judge said the election will be held July 7.

Gutshall resigned from the board April 6, revealing he had been undergoing treatment for brain cancer, The Associated Press reported. He died April 16.

Gutshall was elected to the county’s five-member board in 2017. He at one time served as its vice chair.

The new board member will complete Gutshall’s term, which extends through the end of next year.

Va. health dept. improves nursing home inspection backlog, reforms sanction criteria for facilities

Stories of neglect in care or unsanitary living situations have plagued several of Virginia’s nursing home facilities in recent years and data backs up a lapse in oversight by state agencies.  With reform efforts underway, the Virginia Department of Health officials said they aim to adopt sanction criteria by the end of the year to rein in bad actors and get troubled facilities back on track.  As of July, 58% of Virginia’s nursing homes were overdue for inspections and 68 of Virginia’s 289 nursing homes were found to have serious deficiencies, according to ProPublica. Several of the state’s flagged facilities with numerous deficiencies also had high staffing turnover rates.  The issue has been salient among various healthcare spaces, including VDH. 
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