Staffing is an ongoing concern at nursing homes, but the fires are finally calming down. As Skilled Nursing News continues to monitor shifts in staffing challenges – especially with the federal staffing mandate in place – our focus has become more vigilant. Thus, we wanted to take a step back and provide our readers with […]
Diakonos Group
The “super SNF,” an insider term used for nursing homes that serve mostly high acuity patients, is evolving to enhance its specialized function, and leaders in the space believe it will be a replacement – or at least a supplement – for long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) and inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs). The latest changes […]
Nursing home operators are facing burdens and pressures related to the survey process, in yet another consequence of the severe labor shortages facing the sector. Just as nursing homes have struggled to fill open positions, so too have survey agencies been dealing with worker shortages. Survey agencies are trying to shore up their ranks by […]
Tightening margins and dried up Provider Relief Funds have made renovations and new builds next to impossible for many skilled nursing operators. The Diakonos Group, however, recently opened its second new SNF in Oklahoma in the past year — this one costing $17 million — as the long-time operator in the state is tired of […]
Out of 124 nursing facilities in the state of Minnesota, 70% are limiting admissions due to not having enough staff to care for their residents, according to a survey from the Long-Term Care Imperative, a legislative collaborative between Care Providers of Minnesota and LeadingAge Minnesota. That’s up from 41% in July. Currently about 20% of […]
Despite seeing adequate census to remain open, Medford-Okla.-based Servant Living Center, owned by the Diakonos Group, was forced to close earlier this year due to not having enough staffing to take care of its residents. Diakonos Group CEO and President Scott Pilgrim hopes it will be the only one of his facilities that will close […]
Though fears of a massive staff exodus following the Biden’s administration vaccination mandate have likely been tempered with the recent inclusion of all health care providers, recruitment for nursing homes remains a challenge as the need for direct care workers in long-term care settings will nearly double in the next decade. “When I worked in […]
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed structural issues from top to bottom in the infrastructure of long-term care in the U.S., from infection control to staffing levels to SNFs’ role in the health care system. But one solution would address, if not eliminate, a multitude of those problems, according to a range of operators, consultants, and frontline […]
The majority of patients at any nursing facility have their care covered by the Medicaid program of any given state, and those rates are notorious for being insufficient to cover the cost of the services those patients demand — to the point that operators from multiple states can argue near-simultaneously that it is theirs with […]
When the COVID-19 pandemic began to gather momentum in the U.S. in spring, one of the earliest strategies for combatting the virus in skilled nursing facilities was to cohort patients with the disease in designated areas — or even set up entire facilities dedicated to the care of these patients. The Centers for Medicare & […]
Securing state permission to build a skilled nursing facility in Oklahoma involves a lengthy certificate-of-need (CON) process — one that has to start months in advance. And because of that length of time, one operator finds itself launching new construction amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Diakonos Group on May 14 announced the start of construction […]
In an era of tight finances and legal caps on the number of beds, new skilled nursing developments are few and far between — with most of the action in recent years focused on higher-end, post-acute rehab facilities. The Diakonos Group’s latest development, a $15 million skilled nursing facility in Tulsa, Okla. with a total […]
Under the new regulatory landscape, avoiding rehospitalizations is king — not just for the skilled nursing facility, but for the hospital and any home health providers that may provide care after discharge. But too often, SNFs focus on care within the facility only, and don’t take steps to manage the entire process from hospital to […]