State inspectors who likely will help enforce the Biden administration's new nursing home staffing requirements are facing their own workforce shortages. The Biden administration says its newly proposed staffing ratios could improve patient care, but the program's success may depend on a nursing home oversight apparatus that's already struggling to keep up with inspections. More than 30 state survey agencies, which examine nursing homes' compliance with federal standards, have vacancy rates of at least 20%.
Washington’s staffing standards for nursing homes, on average, already exceed the proposed federal staffing minimums. But Friday’s announcement drew mixed reactions among groups affiliated with the state’s approximately 200 nursing homes, which care for roughly 12,000 people. The announcement comes as President Biden has pledged to improve the country’s long-term care system for the growing aging population, and in the wake of the deadliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic that disproportionately impacted nursing home residents and workers.
A lack of basic hygiene and infection control in the facilities allowed Covid-19 to spread “virtually unchecked” in the pandemic’s early days, according to a Justice Department report released Thursday. The Justice Department began to investigate the Paramus and Menlo Park Veterans Memorial Homes in October 2020 after Covid-19 ravaged the facilities’ populations, with the highest and fouth-highest reported death tolls in the state’s long-term care facilities, the report says.
Earlier this week, a Hartford judge ordered the closing after a lengthy analysis by a court appointed receiver determined it was financially unviable. Since November 2019, Waterbury Gardens has been in receivership. During this time, it was determined the facility lost more than $15.5 million between October 2019 and September 2022. The court appointed receiver, attorney Katharine B. Sacks, says those losses continue. Waterbury Garden joins a growing list of nursing home closures. That list includes another home in Waterbury along with facilities in Wallingford, Greenwich, Madison, Meriden, Westport, Wolcott, West Hartford, Chester, and Farmington.
As Delaware’s population gets older, a significant question emerges: Will the state get wiser in how it confronts the demographics of aging? The program, titled “Delaware in 2040 – Demographic Changes and the Impacts on Infrastructure,” was designed more to provoke thought than to provide answers, with many of the questions raised focused on healthcare for the state’s growing senior population and housing, both for seniors and for those who will have to care for them.
The home health program provides intermittent in-home care for people recovering from an illness or surgery. That care can include help from nurses, physical therapists, home health aids and social workers. Hospice is for patients with a life expectancy of six months or less. Nurses can help manage pain and other symptoms, and chaplains can provide spiritual support. Heather Richter, the clinical manager for the hospice program, said the goal is to support both the patient and their family or other caregivers.