Nursing homes across the nation are experiencing a drop in operating capacity, and here in the Finger Lakes region the decrease has been more striking.
This is according toa recent study out of the University of Rochester, which highlights that there are fewer people staying in skilled nursing facilities than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A primary reason for that decline is that there's these widespread staffing issues in the nursing home industry,” said Brian McGarry, assistant professor of geriatrics and aging at URMC and the lead author of the study.
McGarry’s report, which was recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine, shows that nursing homes in the Finger Lakes region areoperatingatroughly10%belowtheircapacity. That's twice the national average.
McGarry said this is affecting the entire health care system.
“We tend to split sort of long-term care and health care,” McGarry said. “But what this paper really shows is that it's all interconnected.”
He said if nursing homes cannot take in more patients, hospitals are forced to accommodate extended stays. Research showed that areas with a greater drop in nursing home capacity also saw a greater increase in hospital length of stay.
“We have patients who are clinically ready to be discharged to the next sort of setting down, which is often nursing homes ... and(hospitals) not being able to find a bed for those patients,” McGarry said.
McGarry said the issue hits rural communities even harder with most nursing home closures happening in those areas. He said a solution would be to make greater investments into the workforce with better wages and pay for staff.
