Nursing homes across the U.S. may soon be faced with the challenge to remain fully staffed, or close, after President Joe Biden proposed minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes as part of an effort to improve patient safety on Sept. 1.
The administration is proposing that all nursing homes be required to have a registered nurse on-site 24/7 and also "have enough nurses and nurse aides to provide routine bedside care, among other tasks," according to President Biden's opinion piece on the matter, published Sept. 1 by USA Today.
Opponents of the regulations, however, have argued that imposing staffing requirements on already resource-strained nursing homes will force a wave of closures to take place, according to a Sept. 17 report from the Wausau Pilot & Review.
One facility in Syracuse, Neb., the Good Samaritan Society home — which is the town's only nursing home — is reportedly operating at only about half of its licensed staffing capacity. It has even been forced to turn away new patients because it continues to struggle to find the staff to support more, the Wausau Pilot & Review reported. If it does close, residents would have to travel at least 40 minutes to another facility in a different town.
"Regulators estimate 1,358 rural nursing homes, including 58 in Nebraska, would need to add nurses to meet that standard," the Wausau Pilot & Review reported.