60 Seconds with Ben Swett: The Labor Problem Gets Worse
There’s no hiding from the labor shortage affecting senior care facilities. According to a September survey from the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living, 99% of nursing homes and 96% of assisted living communities reported having either low-level, moderate-level or high-level staffing shortages. So only 1% and 4% of those facilities, respectively, are fully staffed? That is astounding. 28% of AL communities reported limiting new admissions because of the shortages, which is not good, but 58% of SNFs have had to turn away patients or referrals. Not only are they losing out on revenue, but they don’t have the opportunity to prove their worth in the... Read More »60 Seconds with Ben Swett: The SKILLS Act and Long-Term Care
Last week, Pennsylvania Congressman Fred Keller introduced the Strengthening Knowledge, Improving Learning, and Livelihoods (or SKILLS) Act. The legislation will be designed to guide individuals who were laid off during the pandemic in the retail and hospitality industries to new career opportunities in industries like long-term care, which desperately needs more qualified workers. The Act would put these people on a career path and encourage advancement in the long-term care industry, but the details on how are sparse, at least right now. The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living fully supported the legislation and will now get to work getting it... Read More »60 Seconds with Ben Swett: Vaccine Mandates and Staff Retention
Next month, CMS will release its Interim Final Rule with a comment period on the mandate for skilled nursing facilities, but also hospitals, dialysis facilities, ambulatory surgical centers and home health agencies, to vaccinate their staff or risk losing Medicare and Medicaid funding. Even before the announcement and the FDA’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine in August, many senior care companies already issued mandates, like Atria Senior Living, LCS and Five Star Senior Living, just to name a few. But we have not heard many concrete data on staff resignations as a result of these mandates, since that is a great fear for the industry. Anecdotally, the results and predicted outcomes are all... Read More »60 Seconds With Ben Swett: The New Senior Living Rankings
U.S. News & World Report announced that it is getting into the business of ranking seniors housing communities, after already doing the same for nursing homes. We’re happy to see the initiative since improved transparency for the sector and recognition of the services that operators provide is a good thing. We are also pleased that apparently, U.S. News will dedicate one journalist to cover the sector and help educate consumers on the differences between seniors housing and SNFs, which national and local media fail to do all too often. After working with some industry leaders and associations to create a rankings methodology, Activated Insights, run by CEO Jacquelyn Kung, is... Read More »60 Seconds With Ben Swett: Staffing Scarcity Stunting the Recovery?
Driving through New England this past weekend, I was struck by the number of “help wanted” and “we’re hiring” signs across dozens of storefronts and billboards advertising job fairs for many types of businesses. All I kept thinking about was how senior care facilities were faring across the country with finding help. Not only that – qualified help. We know that senior care jobs paying somewhere just above minimum wage can be difficult, emotionally draining and receive little positive recognition from the public. So higher overall wages and hiring bonuses could easily sway a chunk of the labor force to other industries and away from senior care, which will need many... Read More »Schedule a demo
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