It’s not always easy to tell from the outside, but the nursing home industry is in crisis.
Nearly three quarters of nursing homes in the United States are worried they may have to close due to staffing problems, according to a survey conducted earlier this year by the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living.
Simply put, skilled nursing facilities do not have enough staff to admit all patients in need.
“We project that more than 400 nursing homes could close this year due to this workforce and economic crisis,” Beth Martino, senior vice president of public affairs for the AHCA/NCAL, told U.S. News & World Report.
One factor in this ongoing crisis is that inflation and wage increases have greatly increased costs at Christian Health Care Center and other nursing homes, but Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates have remained flat. The resulting squeeze has made it difficult for facilities like CHCC to remain solvent and hire the workers needed.
Throughout the country, more than 300 nursing homes have closed since the COVID-19 pandemic began two short years ago. An August report from AHCA/NCAL projected that nursing homes would take until at least 2026 to return to pre-pandemic staffing levels. The industry is gaining a mere 4,600 jobs per month across the country despite that it is down 223,700 jobs since the start of the pandemic.
“This health care sector has experienced the worst job loss and the slowest recovery,” AHCA/NCAL stated in announcing the report. “Nursing home employees are still down more than 14 percent compared to February 2020.”
Sixty percent of skilled nursing facilities, including CHCC, are having to limit admissions due to staffing shortages. Roughly a third of the beds at CHCC are empty right now because of a shortage of long-term care workers — and that is despite months of rigorous recruiting efforts. That has caused capacity problems at such facilities as PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center because patients ready to be discharged often have nowhere to go.
CHCC has been working alongside PeaceHealth in Bellingham to advocate for the skilled nursing industry on behalf of Lynden and the greater community, but the problem persists.
According to AHCA/NCAL, the federal government has proposed rules requiring a minimum level of staffing at nursing homes — but without providing any resources to get them there.
“Rebuilding the long-term care workforce will not happen by decree,” said Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of AHCA/NCAL, in a press release. “Nursing homes cannot solve this labor crisis on their own. We need policymakers and stakeholders to work together to address the root causes of the staffing challenges in nursing homes and employ a comprehensive set of solutions.”
Washington state does currently have minimum staffing levels in place (3.4 hours of direct care staff per resident day), and CHCC always exceeds those numbers.
Despite these great challenges, CHCC, its staff and its board of trustees are fiercely determined to protect the sustainability of CHCC for decades to come. We have increased admissions as much as we are able, and we continue to try to recruit workers and train people who want to enter the industry. We thank the local community for all of your patience and understanding as we work through challenges that are impacting long-term care across the nation.