Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order boosts Virginia nursing home oversight

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) celebrated the executive order “Strengthening Oversight of Virginia’s Nursing Homes,” and the impact it's had on the community on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Jan. 14, a press release stated that Youngkin hosted an event to recognize the efforts and accomplishments made under Executive Order 52, “Strengthening Oversight of Virginia’s Nursing Homes.”

This event celebrated the state's ongoing efforts to "strengthen accountability, modernize operations and increase transparency across Virginia’s nearly 300 nursing homes," per the release.

It also celebrated the state employees who helped reshape the system to better serve Virginia's senior citizens.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin with state leaders celebrating at the nursing home oversight improvement on Jan. 13, 2026. (Photo by Kaitlyn DeHarde, Office of Governor Glenn Youngkin)

Gov. Glenn Youngkin delivered remarks at the nursing home oversight improvement celebration on Jan. 13, 2026. (Photo by Kaitlyn DeHarde, Office of Governor Glenn Youngkin)

Gov. Glenn Youngkin celebrated nursing home oversight improvements on Jan. 13, 2026. (Photo by Kaitlyn DeHarde, Office of Governor Glenn Youngkin)

After the event, leaders from the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) began a media tour across the state to highlight the progress made with the new changes from Youngkin's order.

The order was signed in August 2025 and has since made significant improvements with the VDH's Office of Leisure and Certification (OLC) to improve oversight capacity and modernize the way concerns are received, tracked, and addressed.

“Virginia families deserve confidence that when a loved one lives in a nursing home, they are safe, respected, and cared for with dignity,” said Youngkin. “Today we celebrate real progress. We strengthened staffing, modernized systems that had fallen behind, and increased transparency so families have clearer information and greater trust in oversight and accountability.”

Youngkin also established the Nursing Home Oversight and Accountability Advisory Board to better promote improvement within nursing homes.

Board member Joanna Heiskill with Nursing Home Oversight and Accountability Advisory said the board was created to keep residents and families at the center of the work.

“The voices of nursing facility residents and family members must be a priority in this process toward change,” Heiskill said.

Some of the accomplishments highlighted at the event were rebuilding leadership and increasing oversight capacity by hiring more staff members.

• Between July and December 2025, 21 medical facility instructors (MFIs) were hired, consisting of 15 long-term care and six short-term care.
• MFI job vacancies declined from 28 in July 2025 to 11 in December 2025.
• Since July 2025, 40 OLC positions have been filled, as well as 14 added roles to assist with "finance, leadership, operations, leadership, policy and finance," according to the release.
• Important leadership positions have been filled, such as the new OLC director and long-term care division director.

This new system has improved human resources leadership by adding timelines to quicken the hiring process. It now takes 58 days to fill a role, when before, from 2023 to 2024, it would take 90 days.

VDH also created a new complaint portal to better monitor reports. The portal:

• Digitalizes complaints from residents, staff, families and advocates.
• Automatically creates a reference number for the complaint.
• Improves how complaints are assigned and tracked.
• Analyzes data to monitor trends within facilities, ownership, and region.
• Still offers phone, mail and in-person options for people.

“Protecting the health and safety of nursing home residents is a core responsibility,” said State Health Commissioner Karen Shelton. “These reforms strengthen how we carry out that responsibility by improving oversight capacity and ensuring residents and families have clearer access to information and a more reliable way to raise concerns.”

Through the expansion of the OLC through the increase of staffing, supervision roles and regional teams have improved how nursing homes operate.

“As we rebuilt this office, we focused on fixing the systems and hiring the right leaders and staff to prioritize how concerns are identified and resolved,” said R. Christopher Lindsay, VDH's chief operating officer. “By strengthening staffing and supervision, and modernizing complaint intake, we have built a foundation to ensure that safe and high-quality care is provided in Virginia’s nursing homes.”

The OLC website also created a feature for the public to observe the federal nursing home quality data. Community members can now see inspection histories, survey results and facility performance metrics.

For the full press release, visit the governor's website here.