As bottlenecks continue at Minnesota hospitals, a large allocation in state funding to hospitals to ease these is a welcome move. However, nursing home advocates remain unsure on how the funds will trickle down to help providers, especially given the ongoing labor shortage.
In Minnesota, the state Legislature and Governor recently allocated $18 million to help hospitals and nursing homes. This news comes after Minnesota hospitals reported nearly 14,000 instances this year where patients had to stay in their emergency rooms or inpatient units because nursing homes or other step-down facilities couldn’t accommodate them.
The issue of “boarding” patients in emergency rooms (ERs) and other hospital spaces is more expensive, but necessary due to a lack of available nursing home and mental health care beds. It has been a persistent problem, exacerbated during and after the pandemic, however.
And yet, Patti Cullen, CEO of Care Providers of Minnesota, told Skilled Nursing News that it is unclear exactly how the extra funds will impact nursing homes in the state.
“We do not have details on the $18 million other than knowing the $18 million is intended to compensate hospitals this year for boarding cases in their emergency departments, and any cases in inpatient units beyond seven days in length,” she said.
Cullen said that each request from the hospitals was funded partly at $395 per day, with 6,771 inpatient boarding cases from last year lasting 11 days on average until patients were discharged. She noted that hospitals only included them in state funding requests if they were a week or longer.
Throughout this year, approximately 580 patients have been boarding in Minnesota hospitals at any given time.
The recent state funding was secured during budget negotiations in the last week of the session. This led to $300 million being allocated to support nursing homes and an additional $18 million to compensate hospitals for this year.
The Mayo hospital in Mankato, Minnesota is set to receive $379,000 due to an average delay of 20 days for the 33 patients stuck in its ER.