ECONOMY
2022 HEALTH CARE EDITION
Nursing homes grapple with sta ng shortages fueled by pandemic Skilled nursing homes across Texas are facing sta ng challenges that have led to the closure of nearly 30 facilities between January 2020 and June 2021. If changes are not made, advocates said that might only be the beginning. Although the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated biggest drop and have been the slowest to recover, Warren said. The main di erence between an assisted-living BY SHAWN ARRAJJ Although the broader health care and social assistance employment sector has largely recovered jobs lost during the coronavirus pandemic, nursing homes are still down more than 900 jobs in Harris County. Health care and social assistance employment LEFT BEHIND
facility and a nursing home is nursing homes provide medical care in a clinical setting, while assisted living primarily provides personal care in a more social setting. The closing of nursing homes can have a profound e ect on the surrounding community it serves, Warren said. “When you are talking about nursing home closures, … you’re talking about residents in the facilities who may have to be relocated farther away, families that may have to travel farther,” Warren said. The 30 closures statewide took place despite the state’s Legislative Budget Board deciding to boost Medicaid reimbursements for nursing homes while an ongoing public health emergency is in e ect. Warren said the THCA is pushing for two main methods of addressing the shortage. First, he said a long-term pipeline needs to be established to help connect nursing students to facilities. Additionally, he said he is advocating for the Texas Legislature to permanently increase the Medicaid base rate for nursing homes, which he said has not been done in 10 years.
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the di culties many nursing homes faced in retaining sta , those challenges date back before the pandemic, said Kevin Warren, president of the Texas Health Care Association, which advocates on behalf of roughly 400 nursing, post-acute and assisted-living facilities across Texas. “If you go back prepandemic, from a workforce perspective, long-term care and nursing homes in the state of Texas were already severely under- sta ed,” he said. Between January 2020 and September 2021, Texas saw a reduction in the workforce of roughly 10,000 employees in the nursing home sector, according to the Bureau of Land Statistics. Harris County alone saw a reduction of more than 900 employees over that time. The health care industry as a whole saw a reduction in jobs at the start of the pandemic but has largely recovered. Nursing homes both saw the
260,662
260,600
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Nursing and residential care facilities employment 2020 2021
25K
22,133
21,213
20K 22.5K 15K 17.5K 0
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2021 MAY
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2020
SOURCE: BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
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