USA TODAY on Thursday published a lengthy article on nursing home staffing patterns and staffing-related related inspections and enforcement mechanisms.The article describes an investigation carried out by the newspaper, which found that the federal government falls short on enforcing staffing guidelines for nursing homes, with grave consequences for residents.
Leaders with industry groups pushed back on the article, saying that the focus is misplaced, with more attention needed on the workforce crisis besetting the sector.
USA TODAY explored the impact of staffing shortages on residents; when facilities are short-staffed, the quality and frequency of caretaking is diminished – leading to increased resident mortality, and higher turnover for existing staff, the article stated.
The report also detailed how facilities located in communities with low-income residents, disproportionately people of color, experience the worst staffing issues.
‘Timid’ federal inspectors and operators who ‘beef up’ staffing on inspection dates are a large part of the issue, according to the story.
If inspectors “were empowered and interested, able or willing, to enforce this, I think the sufficient staffing requirement would be fine,” Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, told USA TODAY. “But unfortunately, they’re unwilling or unable to do that.”
Yet exactly who is responsible for fixing the staffing crisis is unclear. In an email to Skilled Nursing News, a spokesperson for the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) said the organization is disappointed in the article, which they felt mischaracterized the issues.
“The vast majority of nursing homes are committed to providing surveyors with accurate, complete information, and the current payroll-based journal reporting system is auditable and robust — 99 percent of nursing homes are currently meeting the federal government’s process to determine sufficient staffing,” a spokesperson said. “What the media and policymakers should be concerned about is how the workforce shortage in long term care is creating an access to health care crisis that affects all providers.”
AHCA Senior Vice President Holly Harmon was quoted in the USA TODAY article, as was an ACHA press release from the summer, which stated that 94% of nursing homes need to increase staffing to meet Biden’s prospective minimum staffing mandates, costing $10 billion a year.
“A new, federal staffing mandate without the available workforce and financial resources necessary to meet it would reinforce a punitive process that hasn’t been working for decades,” she said.
In response to the USA TODAY article, LeadingAge, which represents non-profit nursing homes and other senior care providers, referenced its previous public comments on staffing and the staffing mandate – calling for increased federal funding and support to support staffing standard initiatives. “Enforcing a staffing standard while simultaneously siphoning off resources is a self-defeating exercise. One commonly discussed solution to improve workforce recruitment and retention is to pay competitive wages,” the organization stated in its comments. “While we fully support appropriately and adequately compensating the long-term care workforce, LeadingAge reminds CMS that staff wages and benefits cannot be increased when the system is underfunded and SNF payments are being cut.”
