The Senate Health Services Reform committee convened today to host a hearing that covered a number of topics, with specific focus being placed on operational concerns for nursing homes and hospitals throughout Minnesota.
In the hearing, a representative from Care Providers of Minnesota cited over 76% of the association’s members are currently limiting admissions into their assisted living facilities due to staffing constraints. Job vacancy rates have continued to grow throughout the past year, causing massive turnover of employment in the industry. The current concern is that constant turnover leads to potential burnout for remaining employees, which then accelerates additional turnover.
Last month, Governor Walz announced he would be deploying the National Guard on December 5 to provide additional assistance to facilities that are in need due to staffing shortages. Guard Members would visit sites for a minimum of 2 weeks (with a maximum possibility of 3 weeks) and would provide onsite support and non-direct care support. This has presented another issue, as providers have reported feeling scared that if they request additional help, it will draw negative attention to their facility, and will then be met with an adversarial relationship with surveyors from the Health Systems Bureau. Due to this complex situation, facilities are facing staffing shortages, but are also scared to ask for help.
“Nursing home staffing shortages and a lack of hospital bed availability combine to make one of the biggest looming crises facing our state,” said Sen. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka), chair of the committee. “These issues could easily compound to result in our elderly and vulnerable populations being left with no beds and no options. We are facing grave peril regarding these matters, and we need to approach the problem as a collaborative process.”
The Minnesota Hospital Association also reported that in addition to staffing shortages, they are also experiencing a 13.5% reduction in hospital bed availability in Minnesota throughout the past year. A decreasing work force has further exacerbated these issues.
“Our number one goal after this hearing should be retaining workforce in these nursing, long-term care, and hospital settings, because right now, the people in those jobs are leaving in droves,” continued Abeler. “If wages were higher in this industry, the jobs would be more desirable, and we’d be much more likely to build stable and desired careers, leading to the stabilization of the industry as a whole. The particular challenge with nursing homes is that the people in those homes need to be served, and if they go un-served, the consequences could quite literally be life or death. We need to stem the tide of people leaving by building careers and collaborating to solve the problem, and I’m hopeful that our hearing today laid the groundwork for achieving these goals.”
Senate Republicans previously put forward a Nursing Home Relief Package which would use federal funds to spend between $150-200 million on overall nursing home workforce stabilization. The goal of this package would be to retain current staff, recruit new nursing home staff, and respond to the crisis needs by replacing staff that are expected to leave the industry.