Finding a safe, affordable and accessible nursing home or assisted-living center for sick or elderly South Dakotans has become more difficult in recent years but is getting harder than ever due to a shortage of facility workers and financial losses suffered amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The labor shortage affecting businesses across South Dakota is hitting long-term care facilities particularly hard, with the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating historic challenges in hiring workers at nursing homes and assisted-living centers.
The inability to fill open positions and keep up with patient care has led some facilities to turn away new residents even though most have open beds. The labor shortage has caused burnout of overworked employees and reduced the level of patient care at some facilities.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, long-term care facilities in South Dakota saw payrolls rise by almost $30 million overall but lost about $60 million in revenue due to reduced resident admissions, according to the South Dakota Health Care Association.
Faced with the need to raise wages and offer hiring bonuses to attract workers or hire expensive traveling nurses, some facilities already beset by high operating costs and thin profit margins could eventually close, making it harder than ever for families to find a home for their loved ones, industry experts say.
“Access to care could look very different in the future if our funding mechanisms and funding infrastructure don’t change in South Dakota,” said Nate Schema, vice president of operations for the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society, which operates long-term care facilities. “You’re going to have to move your loved ones further and further away from the communities they may have called home for 50-plus years.”
The workforce shortage has created new obstacles and worsened ongoing challenges for Good Samaritan, one of the largest long-term care providers in the nation. The group, based in Sioux Falls and now operating under the umbrella of the Sanford Health Group, has more than 200 current job openings.
“It’s stretching us and it’s taxing us to a place we haven’t been in quite some time,” Schema said.
The inability to hire workers has forced Good Samaritan to turn away some prospective new residents, including at its 19 facilities in South Dakota, at a time when new revenues are greatly needed.
“We have had to limit some admissions in some communities in South Dakota and throughout our organization,” Schema said. “There’s no question that workforce pressures are creating additional pressures on our health-care entities and preventing them from keeping those doors swung wide open.”
Schema said he is aware of about 70 long-term care facilities that have closed across the country in the past year and as many as 200 that…
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