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The COVID-19 pandemic created “crisis”-level worker shortages at many U.S. long-term care facilities and nursing homes, as workers were sidelined by illness, quarantine or childcare challenges. But a review by the News4 I-Team found it also exposed long-term staffing shortages that many experts say are likely to remain even after the pandemic subsides.
“The workforce shortage in health care predates the pandemic, but the pandemic shone a bright light on it and made it way worse,” said Joe DeMattos, president of the Health Facilities Association of Maryland. “Job No. 1 in health care right now … but specifically in nursing homes and assisted living, is workforce development, workforce recruitment and workforce retention.”
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New research shows that vaccination dramatically reduces the odds that seniors get hospitalized with COVID-19.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that those aged 65 and older who had received both doses of either the Pfizer or the Moderna vaccine were 94% less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than seniors who had not been vaccinated. Seniors who had received only one dose were 64% less likely to be hospitalized.
“COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective, and these real-world findings confirm the benefits seen in clinical trials, preventing hospitalizations among those most vulnerable,” said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.
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The pandemic has thrown the long-term care industry into a tailspin.
Fearful of contracting the virus, patients have stayed away from nursing homes, causing a plunge in census numbers for facilities that rely on long-term care residents, short-term rehabilitation referrals and transfers from hospitals.
“Is the industry going to downsize? Yes,” said Andy Edeburn, a principal at Premier, a group purchasing and consulting organization. “Not all nursing homes are going to come back.”
Nursing home occupancies are at an all-time low and facilities are struggling to stay open. Nursing home occupancy dropped 16.5 percentage points to 68.5% in January 2021 from 85% in January 2020, according to the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living. In addition, 143 facilities closed or merged with other organizations in 2020 and 1,670 are projected to do so in 2021, AHCA/NCAL estimated.