Adding specialized services could be a daunting task for skilled nursing providers coming off of a year of occupancy rate freefall, at least for most of 2018. But as they prepare for the new Medicare reimbursement system, the role of specialization in driving occupancy will only grow. That’s according to a webinar hosted Wednesday by […]
Category: Staffing
The staff members tasked with guiding residents from hospitals to post-acute care options frequently feel restricted during the process — and often don’t even know why certain SNFs are classified as preferred partners. Anti-steering rules, or regulations that prevent hospitals from recommending specific skilled nursing facilities, can sometimes serve as a general gag for discharge […]
A staffing software provider aimed at long-term care operators on Thursday announced an injection of $10.8 million in additional funding as it attempts to expand beyond its current four-state footprint. The Quincy, Mass.-based IntelyCare raised the funds in a Series A round led by Leerink Revelation Partners, along with Longmeadow Capital, LRV Health, and former […]
A recent survey found a strong correlation between employee satisfaction and resident engagement — which in turn boosts referrals. That means that engaging employees can be a path to better returns on investment. “The happier the employees, the happier the residents, the better the money,” Todd Schmiedeler of Trilogy Health Services said at a Wednesday […]
The workforce crisis in skilled nursing can often seem like a problem without an immediate solution: There are only so many qualified workers in any given area, and with unemployment at record lows, competition for competent candidates hasn’t been this fierce in a generation. Plus, with reimbursement and regulatory pressures, skilled nursing operators often don’t […]
A privately operated skilled nursing facility for veterans in Utah ranked number one in the country* for rehospitalization rates — a feat its administrator ascribes to both smart staffing and a prime location. The Southern Utah Veterans Home tied for the number-one spot in a recent ranking of all 15,421 nursing homes in the United […]
Skilled nursing and senior housing operators often point to wage gains at retail chains as a major reason behind the industry’s persistent staffing woes. This week, one of the country’s largest foodservice employers unveiled another attractive perk that could lure workers away from long-term care: heavily subsidized senior care services for employees who juggle work […]
In a long-term health care era plagued by staffing concerns and tough headlines about nursing homes, a pair of skilled nursing facilities topped a new list of the best workplaces in aging services. Gurwin Jewish Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Commack, N.Y. and Van Dyk Health Care in Hawthorne, N.J. came in first and second […]
Skilled nursing and seniors housing executives have blamed wage pressures in part for their struggles in recent years, but a new analysis finds that nursing assistants haven’t seen their wages increase in a decade. The median nursing assistant brought in $12.78 per hour in 2007, compared to an inflation-adjusted $12.84 a full 10 years later, […]
When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began basing its rating of nursing home staffing levels on payroll records in April of this year, many skilled nursing facilities were found to be underreporting their nursing and caretaking personnel levels. Soon after the New York Times published an analysis of the records by Kaiser Health […]
Staffing shortages in skilled nursing facilities made national headlines last month, but the dearth of workers and registered nurses have been a headache for nursing homes for years now. Some of the fixes can range from bonuses for hard-to-staff shifts to higher-level partnerships with local businesses and governments. But one thing is clear: The problem […]
Less than a month after a New York Times story revealed concerns about insufficient nursing home staffing levels, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) handed out nearly 1,400 one-star reviews. Last week, when CMS updated its Five-Star Quality Rating System for nursing homes, 1,387 facilities received one-star ratings for staffing coverage, according to […]
A shortage of qualified workers continues to plague the skilled nursing sector, and recent data from job board Monster backs it up. According to a new report from the Weston, Mass.-based online classifieds company, job openings for registered nurses were the most popular type of position posted during the first half of 2018. The health care […]
When Fortune magazine publishes its first “Best Workplaces in Aging Services” list on Sept. 27, it might include some skilled nursing facilities. That wasn’t what Jacquelyn Kung, CEO of Activated Insights, expected when her firm began leading the effort to compile the “Best Workplaces in Aging Services.” Activated Insights is based on the San Francisco corporate […]
Most U.S. nursing homes experience staffing fluctuations and have been overreporting their nursing and caretaking staff levels for years, according to data analyzed by Kaiser Health News for the New York Times. The new federal data comes from daily payroll records that Medicare began gathering and publishing from more than 14,000 nursing homes, as part […]
As skilled nursing occupancy continues to notch record low after record low, strategies to capitalize on the shrinking pool of residents remain top concerns for operators and investors. And at least one analyst says providers should look to the kind of operational improvements that have helped keep afloat another struggling industry: manufacturing. “It’s your labor […]
At a recent industry conference, I watched a pair of presenters show some fairly eye-opening statistics about workforce retention. The studies they cited weren’t health care-specific, but they did demonstrate that conventional wisdom about hiring — specifically, that years of experience and education correlate with strong job performance and retention — is wrong. In fact, they […]
A distressed skilled nursing facility could have problems on multiple fronts, but when trying to fix it, operators and owners need to concentrate on the people working there. Any SNF business can be broken down into four major components: physical, operational, clinical, and financial. That’s according to Isaac Dole, founder and managing partner at Chicago-based Birchwood Healthcare […]
Hiring and retaining talented skilled nursing employees remains one of the biggest challenges for operators in the industry, especially for key frontline nursing positions. Amid these pressures, hiring managers might be tempted to rely on their instincts when selecting from potential candidates — but two health care staffing experts say in many cases, conventional hiring […]
Operators of nursing homes in Texas reported 97% turnover for certified nursing assistants, with 90% turnover for other key frontline caregiver positions — promoting leaders in the state to declare a “crisis.” The Texas Health Care Association called for higher Medicaid reimbursement rates to help mitigate the trend in a recent report on its members’ financial […]