Shortages of CNAs and Qualified Staff Trigger “Relocation” Notices for NHs in Northern California

Giving more evidence of the potential impact of aging boomers in America, officials in Humboldt County, a North Coast county in California, describe potential shutdowns of three area nursing homes as potentially “catastrophic.” The reason for the closures?  The problem isn’t lack of residents. Operators find it difficult to attract adequate personnel, especially CNAs, needed to staff the care facilities.  From the North Coast Journal article describing the latest problem:

Rockport Healthcare Services, the management company for five of Humboldt County’s six skilled nursing facilities, announced today that they have filed relocation notices for three sites: Pacific, Seaview, and Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Centers. The relocation notices, filed with the California Department of Public Health, are the first step in closing these facilities, which collectively contain 258 beds, and relocating their patients.

 

Stefan Friedman, spokesperson for Rockport, said in a statement that the company is continuing to work with community partners to “find a solution to [a] severe staffing crisis,” but it is possible that after public health approves their relocation notice they will shut down the facilities.

That, said Area 1 Agency on Aging ombudsman Suzi Fregeau, would be “catastrophic.”

 

Although many patients stay only briefly in skilled nursing facilities, receiving rehabilitation after leaving the hospital, the facilities are often the last stop for patients who cannot afford in-home healthcare professionals and need 24-hour care. Their vital role in the continuum of care was felt last year, when the facilities — five of which are owned by the same company, Brius Healthcare — stopped accepting patients. Hospital administrators, hospice workers and families all felt the pinch, and many North Coast residents had to go to facilities far away from Humboldt County. Fregeau said the potential closure will be even worse.

“It means that residents are going to be placed in facilities a minimum of 150 miles away,” she said. “People are going to be dying in communities they’ve never lived in.”

Sad to think that some of the prettiest areas of California are struggling with attracting and keeping adequate numbers of trained people.