Elders in Peril: Workforce crisis hits local nursing homes

Aug. 19--There's a statewide workforce crisis coming in the area of long term care.

Elder care facilities, home health agencies, and hospice companies are having a tough time retaining health care workers in a competitive market, and turnover rates are rising.

"Last year during legislative session we were looking at data and turnover statistics," said Kevin Warren, President and CEO of Texas Health Care Association in Austin. "We recognize that long term care, when you mean caring for the elderly 24/7 is very labor intensive. We started seeing a pattern of higher (turnover) numbers ... and want to recognize that nursing homes are significant employers in many communities."

The impact of nursing homes in Navarro County is substantial. There are six nursing facilities, with a total number of 521 employees. The total labor income from these facilities is $31,384,242, and the total economic activity generated by nursing home facilities in Navarro County is $71,659,849. The amount of state and local tax revenue created by these facilities is $2,672,094, according to Texas Health Care Association figures.

"The state's low nursing home Medicaid reimbursement rate and heavy regulation are affecting the ability to retain nursing staff as they look for other opportunities out of the long term care business," Warren said. "All too often, long term care providers in Corsicana or the rest of Texas are scrambling to fill shifts instead of focusing on continuous improvement because they can't compete in the labor market."

Texas continues to grow as more people seek to reside in the Lone Star State, and the current population of Texas is aging, as well, he said. All these factors (as well as the Baby Boomers entering this demographic) combine to put a big demand on nursing. Because of the current shortage, the demand is only going to get worse.

"The nursing shortage is pervasive across most of the state, and the depressed wages in the community combined with underfunding long term care by the state create an ominous situation for long term care and health care in general in Corsicana," said Tim Conger, former Corsicana resident, now with Bravarro, a company that contracts with THCA. "I know nursing homes are doing the best they can. Hopefully the state will step up next session and help address this."

Warren said they have identified three key things that must be addressed, first of which is to tackle the issue of Medicaid underfunding in the legislature.

"We have a Medicaid rate that pays about $27 per day less than what it takes to survive," he said. "That kind of deficit ... makes it difficult to provide quality care. Makes it difficult to raise wages, increase development of benefits, and makes it difficult to compete in the market."

Secondly, THCA wishes to partner with schools and training programs in order to foster interest with more students regarding long term care. Warren said nursing schools and CNA training schools are trying to engage students at younger ages.

"We must do a better job and work to educate the career market about what's available in long term care," Warren said. "The sky is the limit with dedication and training as far as careers in long term care."

Warren said he knows people who have started as Certified Nursing Assistants, and worked their way up to nursing school and Registered Nurses, then on to administrators. He works with some people who began as CNAs and now own their own long term care facilities in Texas.

"It is a very difficult job," he said. "It is very labor intensive. We have men and women relying on someone to care for them 24 hours a day ... it's such an important role they hold, the more we can do to allow more resources into long term care, then we can work through the challenges that many communities are looking at when it comes to work force."

If health care workers find jobs that have better wages and better benefits for their families, then they have to accept those jobs, and nursing homes have to be able to compete in markets where that is the norm.

"The state of Texas must be willing to invest in solutions and the Medicaid shortfall issue," Warren said. "It's such a big issue, when you look at the volume of patients being care for in Texas at this woefully underfunded rate."

Warren said this is a profession that will continue to grow, as the population ages and people are living longer. He was on track with a business major, and no goals involving long term care. But he volunteered with a friend who was an administrator of a local nursing home, and fell in love with it. He loved engaging and working with the elderly, and has been in that industry over 20 years. It has provided a great living for his beautiful wife and five wonderful children.

"Long term care, home health, hospice," he said. "It's too important not to press forward.

"When it comes down to it, you're caring for somebody's loved one."

------------------------dkirk@corsicanadailysun.com

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