JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Nursing homes in Florida are reporting staff shortages as coronavirus cases climb.
According to a Florida Health Care Association survey, 92% of Florida nursing centers face staffing challenges.
The July survey of 310 nursing homes and 23 assisted living facilities revealed that almost 9 in 10 FHCA member facilities said their overall workforce situation has gotten worse since 2020, and 92% are facing staffing challenges as the state contends with another surge in COVID-19 cases.
The survey also found 88% of nursing centers said they’ve experienced a shortage of staff members in the last month, 52% are having to reduce admissions as a result of staffing challenges and 92% of nursing home members have had to use the services of temporary staffing and other approaches to meet staffing needs.
FHCA spokesperson Kristen Knapp said they need financial resources to recruit and retain staff.
“Our expenses and long-term care have really just increased dramatically. All the infection control supplies and protocols, testing, staff, wages, no heroes pay to encourage people to stay and to work the extra hours to manage and support our residents,” Knapp said. “And this has certainly affected our expenses, as well.”
On websites of agencies in the Northeast Florida area, many say they have immediate openings for all shifts and are offering $1,500 to $3,000 sign-on bonuses.
“They’re robbing Peter to pay Paul. It’s coming out of their bottom line, again, 70% of our costs are going to pay for labor,” Knapp said.
News4Jax asked viewers why they left jobs at nursing centers. One person said it was due to extremely low pay. Another said it was because of a lack of hours for occupational therapy, poor access to proper personal protective equipment to treat COVID-19 patients and company promises not kept to employees with benefits such as buyout of paid time off or use of PTO upon notice of leaving.
Knapp said that although these problems aren’t going away right now, the FHCA is looking at different solutions like grants, policy changes and strategies.
Nursing homes and long-term care facilities are estimated to account for about 3 in 10 deaths from COVID-19, according to the Associated Press.
Legislation was introduced Tuesday to increase nurse staff, improve infection control and boost inspections.
As an alternative to nursing homes, President Joe Biden is seeking $400 billion to expand home and community-based care as an alternative to nursing homes in the giant domestic agenda bill.
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If you would like to learn about a career in nursing, visit https://www.fhca.org/facility_operations/carefortheaging.