Staffing shortages were a problem for skilled nursing facilities well before the current national emergency, but COVID-19’s behavior has exacerbated the challenges. Asymptomatic workers who moved from facility to facility — and who, by nature of their work, from patient to patient — were a major part of the reason the Life Care Center of […]
Category: Staffing
Almost two months after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in a nursing home, a new study confirms what several others have indicated: People infected with COVID-19 can contribute to transmission of the illness without showing any symptoms. The most recent findings on the asymptomatic spread of the virus in nursing homes, published online […]
Even before nursing homes became the epicenter of a world-historic pandemic, the setting was rarely the first choice for young nurses looking to build a long-term career. Often perceived as a less-exciting workplace than other settings — such as the emergency room or private practice — post-acute and long-term care facilities have long been considered […]
The state of California this week announced a program that will provide $500 stipends for certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) who work in the skilled nursing setting, funded primarily by a $25 million donation from social networking giant Facebook. Frontline caregivers who qualify under the “Skilled Nursing Facility Hero Awards” program […]
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep through the nation’s nursing homes, the industry’s already strained workforce could soon reach a new breaking point as caregivers become sick themselves — or fear spreading the virus to their loved ones. The staffing crisis hit the national media last week, when a nursing home in Riverside, Calif. […]
As hospitals try to cope with a surge of COVID-19 patients in need of acute care, skilled nursing facilities have moved to make preparations to take in overflow capacity from the health systems and acute care facilities. In addition, states have begun calling on nursing home companies to create dedicated buildings exclusively for residents with […]
As part of the sweeping $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package signed into federal law last week, the Small Business Administration will soon offer up to $10 million in fully forgivable loans to small businesses across all industries under its Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Skilled nursing facilities feeling the payroll or rent pinch can capitalize on […]
A preliminary analysis from the federal government concluded that the sharing of staff members among multiple nursing homes — along with employees continuing to work while sick — helped to hasten the spread of the novel coronavirus in Washington state. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed the timeline of a COVID-19 outbreak […]
A health care staffing startup that had initially focused on the home setting sees significant opportunity to expand into a skilled nursing space still grappling with the implications of a new Medicare payment model — and it recently pulled down a $5 million funding round to help fuel that growth. The Los Angeles-based Gento, formerly […]
After several consecutive months of declines, the nursing home industry actually added jobs in January, the first month of employment growth since the implementation of a new Medicare payment system last October. The nation’s nursing care facilities brought on 2,400 workers in the first month of 2020, according to the regular monthly employment report from […]
Both the skilled nursing and home health spaces are in the midst of shifts to new Medicare payment models, and despite widespread reports of therapy layoffs at nursing homes, a leading player in the home care space says it isn’t necessarily targeting the cohort of available therapists. Encompass Health Corporation (NYSE: EHC) has been monitoring […]
Nursing home operators continue to struggle with attracting and keeping skilled health care workers, a problem that negatively affects quality of care and the bottom line. And while it’s not easy to come up with solutions to this global issue, staffing obstacles persist — and they’re only going to get worse, according to a recent […]
Just about every major policy change, no matter how well intentioned, has butterfly effects that no one can foresee — along with changes that, while foreseen, still can cause real harm to real people. The news of therapy layoffs and hour reductions that swept through the skilled nursing world earlier last year fell into the […]
Among the many early takeaways from the new Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM), perhaps the most immediate was its effect on rank-and-file therapists who work at skilled nursing facilities. Almost instantly after the PDPM shift on October 1, Skilled Nursing News received a flurry of e-mails from therapists who were laid off or saw their hours […]
The first two months after the implementation of a new Medicare payment model for nursing homes saw slight employment drops in the space, but the trend accelerated as the year came to a close — with the losses nearly quadrupling in December. The national nursing home industry shed 6,700 jobs in December, according to the […]
The team at Skilled Nursing News is looking ahead to 2020 and would like to get your input for the 2020 Skilled Nursing News outlook survey. We’ll be releasing the results of this survey to all readers in early January. All responses gathered shall remain confidential, and your information will not be used in any […]
The Ensign Group (Nasdaq: ENSG) has emerged as a rare publicly traded skilled nursing powerhouse, with steady expansion across the country and persistently solid quarterly earnings numbers. But CEO Barry Port is hesitant to take the credit. Instead, he’s content to chalk up Ensign’s success to its legion of regional leaders, many of whom have […]
The nation’s nursing homes lost about 1,700 jobs in November, marking two consecutive months of slight slides since the introduction of the new Medicare payment model for skilled nursing services. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) counted a seasonally-adjusted total of 1,603,500 employees at nursing care facilities last month, a drop of 1,700 from […]
Thirty nursing homes in the state of Washington will benefit from a federal program that injects penalty recoveries back into initiatives that boost nursing home quality — and the ramifications of the funding could go well beyond the facilities in that one state. The grant, totaling more than $644,000, comes from the Centers for Medicare […]
Post-acute providers continue to struggle with information technology and data-sharing — particularly around care coordination and value-based payment models — a new survey from Black Book Market Research reveals. In fact, 49% of providers who were surveyed reported that their staffers had very low levels of health IT levels of understanding — or they had […]