The 2021 New York state law that sets minimum staffing standards for nursing homes has administrators, caregivers and labor unions debating how to meet the mandate. The staffing law calls for the state's more than 600 nursing homes to provide 3.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. 1199SEIU, the largest union of healthcare workers in the country, contends nursing home operators are forcing staff to work in facilities with an insufficient number of caregivers and workers to provide adequate care.
Racked with nausea and unable to leave the bathroom, Acey Hofflander muttered in confusion. Her husband tried to press a damp washcloth against her neck, his hands trembling and weak from Parkinson’s disease. “What’s happening? What’s going on?” Acey mumbled. Their roles had unexpectedly reversed. At 85, Acey is the healthy one, the organized, energetic caregiver for husband, Tom, 88. But when a grueling day of showering, dressing, feeding and transporting him to medical appointments pushed Acey beyond exhaustion in July, she wound up in the emergency room — a health crisis the Hofflanders blame in large part on a lack of professional, in-home care.
When Kathryn Kindopp heads to work each day, it feels like 2020 again. The administrator at Maplewood Nursing Home in Westmoreland said she and her staff still wear N-95 masks and other personal-protective equipment, including disposable clothing covers and goggles in some cases. They regularly test themselves for COVID-19. Outside entertainers or community groups coming to visit residents remain scarce because of ongoing stringent requirements related to the viral disease. “If you hadn’t been in a nursing home, you would think that the world has almost gone back to normal. But in a nursing home it looks like we’re at the height of COVID,” Kindopp said. “Not much has changed in nursing homes since the height of the pandemic.”
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham broke ground Friday on a new long-term care facility in Springer made possible through $15 million from her capital outlay. The new facility, the only one in the county, will feature 32 private rooms, overnight guest accommodations, a recreation area, family room, chapel, hair salon and exterior gardens with walking paths.
It's a challenge parents faced even before the pandemic: childcare. Snigdha Jain, MD, MHS, instructor in the Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, and her husband both work as clinicians and researchers. They came to Yale in July 2020 with their 2-year-old daughter – a time when many childcare centers were closed due to the newness and uncertainties of COVID-19. Fortunately, the Phyllis Bodel Childcare Center remained open for them throughout the pandemic.
Embrace Iowa, a western Iowa agency that provides elderly and disabled clients with respite care, personal care services, and other forms of nonmedical home assistance, has agreed to a settlement with federal labor officials after being accused of failing to pay its workers overtime wages.
The U.S. Department of Labor has taken Embrace Iowa to court so that the settlement has the effect of an enforceable court order. The deal calls for the company to pay a total of $3,888 to four employees.