Less nursing homes are reporting at least one staffing shortage through the end of February, according to a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
About 29% of facilities, or approximately 4,000 out of about 14,000 nursing homes, had at least one shortage at the end of February. That was a 4% drop from the end of January, when 33% of facilities reported shortages.
“This slight decline between January and February may be partly due to the decline in cases related to the Omicron variant as well as other potential factors, including anecdotal accounts of nursing facilities offering higher wages to attract workers,” KFF researchers Nancy Ochieng, Priya Chidambaram and MaryBeth Musumeci wrote.
KFF also found that nursing facilities were most likely to report a shortage of aides and least likely to report a shortage of clinical staff. Nearly 30% of providers reported aide shortages for the week ending Feb. 27, while just 3% reported clinical staff shortages.
The analysis is based on federal staffing data reported weekly by facilities to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network from mid-May 2020 through Feb. 27, 2022.
Additionally, staff shortages were nearly as high for nursing staff as they were for aides — with 25% of facilities reporting nursing staff shortages, while 15% reported other staff shortages. Aides includes certified nursing assistants, nurse aides and medication aides or technicians. Nursing staff include registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and vocational nurses.
“These patterns have held steady since nursing facilities began reporting this data in May 2020,” the authors said.
The ongoing shortages open questions about how and when President Joe Biden’s policy proposals will be implemented, specifically the minimum staffing requirements.
“The specific details about what minimum staff levels will be proposed are not yet known, and as noted above, CMS intends to conduct a study to inform the new proposed regulations,” Ochieng, Chidambaram and Musumeci wrote. “While the administration plans to issue proposed rules within a year, it is not yet known when the new rules would be finalized or take effect.”
