Facing stagnant pay and the inability to attract the staff it badly needed, the leadership of a skilled nursing facility in Red Cloud, NE, announced plans in late February to close for good. Only weeks later, however, leaders at nearby Webster County Community Hospital said they were planning to assume ownership and keep the facility, Heritage of Red Cloud, open.
To assist with the ownership transfer of the 43-bed facility, hospital leaders met with members of the local community and were able to secure financial partnerships.
While Heritage seems to have a hopeful, new future ahead, its situation shines a light on the struggles shared by many nursing homes in Nebraska — and in rural communities across the country, according to Kierstin Reed, president and CEO of LeadingAge Nebraska.
“We are in a difficult situation in rural Nebraska, in which there simply are not enough staff available,” Reed told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Tuesday. “This leaves nursing homes with two options: reduce census or rely on temporary workers. Both of these choices lead to a financial situation that cannot be sustained long-term.”
A lack of staff and a surplus of empty beds were, in fact, the main issues facing Heritage as leadership weighed whether to close.
More than 200 people attended a meeting hosted by Webster Hospital to speak about the community’s desire to keep Heritage open and explore financial partnerships with the hospital. To put that in perspective, Red Cloud’s population was less than 1,000 and Webster County’s was around 3,400 as of the 2020 census.
Webster Hospital is expected to take over ownership of the skilled nursing facility in April, according to a statement on Heritage’s website.
Rural challenges
“I am so pleased to hear about the potential to prevent the closure in Red Cloud,” Reed shared with McKnight’s. “It is our rural communities that are stepping up to preserve a resource that provides a valuable service to their community.”
Preserving that resource has been difficult for Nebraska’s long-term care providers. In the last three years, 12 nursing homes have closed across the state, now leaving 15 counties without a single nursing home. All-too-familiar rising costs of care and stagnant reimbursement rates are the main culprits, Reed noted.
Policymakers are attempting to address the wave of closures by increasing funding. For example, one proposed measure would increase Nebraska’s current nursing home Quality Assurance Assessment for the first time since its inception in 2011. The increase would more than double the rate — from $3.50 to $9.00 per patient day — and would invest an additional $41 million of Medicaid funding into nursing homes, according to the Nebraska Health Care Association.
Reed said she was “optimistic” that Nebraska providers like Heritage could see more funding in the months and years to come.
This article has been updated to include information, including financial figures, about the Quality Assurance Assessment. A previous version incorrectly referred to the Hospital Quality Assurance and Access Assessment Act.
