An Arlington County, Virginia, board member, who was diagnosed with brain cancer eight weeks ago, has died. Erik Gutshall. (Courtesy Arlington County)Erik Gutshall, 49, died Thursday. He announced his resignation on April 6, saying he had been undergoing treatment for brain cancer, The Associated Press reported. He was elected to the five-member Arlington County Board in 2017. He is its former vice chair. In his resignation announcement, Gutshall said he decided to run for elected office because he believed in the “power of community voices to make a difference in our County.” Gutshall served as the vice chair of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee and director of the Virginia Association of Counties. He was the chair of the county Planning Commission and served on the Transportation Commission. He was also the founder and president of his own business, Clarendon Home Services. He is survived by his wife, Renee, and their daughters.
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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.
