The Montana VA Healthcare System is temporarily shutting down one of its long-term care facilities due to a lack of staff.
The agency on Thursday announced that it’s temporarily suspending care at the Miles City VA Community Living Center in Miles City, MT. The facility provides skilled nursing care to 14 residents, and has about 40 staff members and 30 beds.
The temporary closure comes after a December 2021 investigation identified patient safety concerns due to staffing shortages. The facility’s current vacancies include: physical therapy, social work, nursing leadership, nurse educator and recreation therapy.
The staffing shortages have “substantially impact[ed]” the facility’s ability to provide restorative care and deliver appropriate nursing care in a safe and effective manner, the Montana VA said in a statement emailed to McKnight’s Long-Term Care News on Friday.
The agency also said the temporary closure will allow it to ensure the “full spectrum of staffing requirements are met.” That includes the hiring, training and certifying new employees to meet the facility’s needs.
The agency said it’s also in the process of temporarily relocating VA staff to the Miles City facility.
“The safety and wellbeing of our veterans is our highest priority. Due to staffing challenges, we are unable to ensure that a critical level of high-quality care can be provided to residents,” Judy Hayman, Ph.D., executive director of the Montana VA Healthcare System, said in a statement. “We are proactively transitioning veterans to other locations based on their and their families’ preference.”
The agency does plan to bring those residents back in once the staffing requirements are met.
An analysis released last week shows that 20.30% of Montana’s long-term care facilities have reported staffing shortages in 2022. That ranks as the 32nd highest among all states.
A February report revealed that the number of employees in the long-term care industry nationally is the lowest it’s been in 15 years at about 2.97 million overall — the lowest since January 2007.
