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Roanoke puts in place hiring freeze, budget cuts, amid virus

ROANOKE, Va. — The city of Roanoke has put in place a hiring freeze and budget cuts to help it deal with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Roanoke Times reports the decision was made during a virtual meeting by the Roanoke City Council on Monday.

The new budget calls for a reduction in library hours, closes the city’s swimming pools for two summers and spends less money on tourism and the arts.

The council also agreed to set aside $1.75 million as a contingency fund in case the virus outbreak continues to have lingering impacts on the city’s economy.

The new budget will take effect on July 1.

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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