The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should be doing more to enforce proper staffing levels at nursing homes, while providing more detailed information about nurse coverage hours to the public, the federal government’s top health care watchdog found in a new report. About 7% of the nation’s nursing facilities failed to meet one […]
Category: Staffing
When it became apparent that COVID-19 was sweeping the country, one of the earliest major preventative steps was a move by the federal government to instate a near-total lockdown on any unnecessary visits. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the sweeping ban on March 13, which did include an exception for end-of-life […]
Lessons from Nursing Homes in COVID Hotspots: Secure a Lab Now — and Proceed Carefully on Visitation
With the U.S. taking steps toward reopening — at varying paces in varying states –— skilled nursing leaders from the East Coast COVID-19 hotspots of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut had several pieces of advice for their counterparts elsewhere, which all ultimately boiled down to one warning. Be prepared. That includes taking steps to […]
Nursing facilities with more registered nursing coverage had lower rates of COVID-19 deaths, a new study has found, while a better federal quality rating correlates with a smaller outbreak size. “Nursing homes with higher RN staffing and quality ratings have the potential to better control the spread of the novel coronavirus and reduce deaths,” a […]
The COVID-19 pandemic struck the Northeast with particular force, with skilled nursing facilities sitting on the front lines. One of the pressures stemming from the pandemic came on the workforce front, as frontline caregivers such as nurses and certified nursing assistants fell ill with COVID-19. And as the spread of the virus accelerated in New […]
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 […]
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 […]