The lack of nursing home beds means that U.S. hospitals are caring for patients who don't need to be hospitalized but have nowhere else to go.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: The nationwide shortage of nursing home staff also means a shortage of care. Nursing homes cannot take on as many residents, and that means many people who should be moving into nursing homes instead spend more time stuck in hospitals. Vermont Public's Nina Keck reports.
NINA KECK, BYLINE: Kathy Dick is a retired nurse who lives in Sudbury, Vt. She remembers when she first began to worry about a close friend.
Inspectors found that an anesthesiologist at a Brooklyn hospital made numerous errors in administering epidurals. Some were life-threatening. One was fatal.
Many doctors worry that the drugs' current popularity, fueled in part by social media, has resulted in people taking them without sufficient medical supervision.