The American Health Care Association recently published the results of its "State of the Nursing Home Industry" survey.
The results show a range of staffing issues continue to plague nursing homes. More than 9 out of 10 nursing home providers have increased staff wages and offered bonuses, yet 96 percent continue to experience difficulty hiring staff, in large part due to a lack of interested and qualified candidates.
The survey, conducted Dec. 7-16, asked 524 nursing home operators questions about their workforce, financials and COVID-19. Thirty-five percent of respondents answered for multiple facilities while 65 percent were for a single facility. Of single facilities, 62 percent were rural and 38 percent urban.
Here are six key survey findings:
- Fifty-five percent of nursing homes said they are operating at a loss.
- Forty-eight percent of nursing homes said they cannot sustain operations at the current pace for more than one year.
- Eighty-three percent of nursing homes said it is somewhat important, very important or extremely important for the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency to be extended.
- Seventy-nine percent of nursing home providers said they are concerned about being able to meet a potential federal staffing mandate.
- More than two-thirds of nursing homes said they are concerned about having to close their facilities over staffing woes.
- More than half of nursing homes said they are having to limit new admissions due to staffing shortages.