The long-term care industry has navigated a tumultuous time with COVID-19, and now nearly every nursing home and assisted living facility in the country is facing a significant staff shortage, including facilities on the Business Journal’s list of Skilled Nursing Facilities and Assisted Living Facilities.
The nonprofit Los Angeles Jewish Home provides care to more than 1,000 senior residents throughout its campuses in Reseda and more than 4,000 via in-home and community health programs. Eisenberg Village of the Jewish Homes ranks No. 2 on the Assisted Living Facilities list and No. 14 for Skilled Nursing Facilities.
Chief Executive Dale Surowitz said employment recruiting has been a mixed bag, but one strategy that helps the Jewish Home maintain employees is its own pool to grab employees from the on-campus Annenberg School of Nursing program. “Our nursing school trains (licensed vocational nurses) and (certified nursing assistants),” Surowitz said. “We help develop them and train them, so they become CNAs and are able to come back into the workforce. The majority of the people who come through the program, we hire, so that gives us our own kind of workforce, which is unique.”
However, Surowitz said, hiring dietary and housekeeping workers has become increasingly challenging as the COVID pandemic has continued. He added that COVID-19 vaccine requirements of certain health care workers have led to some workers not getting vaccinated and migrating to other fields.
“It takes a much longer period of time to fill positions that we used to fill very, very quickly,” Surowitz said.
The shortage of workers goes beyond the Valley market, according to a national survey conducted by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living.
The trade organizations received responses from 1,183 nursing homes and assisted living providers. The results, published in late September, showed that 86 percent of nursing homes and 77 percent of assisted living providers said their employment situations have worsened over the past three months.
Key findings include more than seven out of 10 nursing homes and assisted living communities reporting a lack of qualified candidates, paired with unemployment benefits, have been the most significant obstacles in getting fresh staff. The shortages have caused nearly every nursing home and assisted living facility to request that their staff work extra shifts or overtime.
Also, 78 percent of nursing homes and 71 percent of assisted living facilities are concerned the workforce challenges may force them to shut down. More than a third of nursing homes are “very concerned” about the possibility of ceasing operations.
COVID costs
Duplication of staffing and additional costs for PPE have also been incurred by the Jewish Home so that it can properly care for its residents. “It has been a significant operational challenge and a financial challenge to navigate through the pandemic,” Surowitz said.
In light of COVID-induced extra costs, the Jewish Home put out an aggressive effort to protect its residents and get them vaccinated when the COVID-19 vaccine began to rollout. Surowitz said that since January, there has not been a positive case of COVID-19 within the 1,200 or so vaccinated residents.
In terms of morale, the Jewish Home is in an “upbeat” mood despite the impact of COVID, according to Surowitz, who added that residents nowadays are participating in more engaging activities following a long stretch of time in 2020 where interaction had to be limited.
Although there are downward trends associated with assisted living facilities and nursing homes, the roster of such facilities throughout the Valley region has expanded.
Oakmont Senior Living, which offers retirement living and senior communities across multiple counties in Southern California, opened its assisted living facility in Simi Valley in the spring and will open another in Moorpark.
The two-story Moorpark assisted living and memory care facility was approved in August 2018. The building will have 77 units and include casual and formal dining rooms, a library, craft room, pet park and memory care garden. Topping off the features will be a beauty salon, movie theater, fitness center and storage, all housed within the building’s basement.
The Moorpark facility is expected to open in early 2022.
Oakmont of Santa Clarita ranks No. 44 on the list of Assisted Living Facilities.