This article was provided by Health Facilities Association of Maryland.
By Joe DeMattos
As you are reading this, we are well into 2023. However, I wanted to share some professional reflections in hopes that they might be useful to you and your family as we delve deeper into the new year.
In one way or another, healthcare impacts all of us. While we may not always think of all the nuances of healthcare day-to-day, we all experience healthcare in one way or another.
Given my line of work, as President and CEO of Maryland’s leading nursing home association, I do think of healthcare every day – the good, the bad, the challenges, and the opportunities. One of the greatest challenges we face across the nation in all healthcare settings is the ongoing workforce shortage.
This workforce shortage has existed for years, even before the pandemic. Yet, there is no doubt that the pandemic exacerbated this crisis. Physicians, nurses, nursing assistants, technicians, therapists, dietary workers, and housekeeping staff are all short.
That said, most nursing homes in Maryland have consistently provided more hours of daily care than the state-required minimum of 3.0 hours.
Working in healthcare has always been hard and demanding work. It can be both emotionally challenging and empowering.
There are many reasons for the current workforce shortage. Some of which is about wages and benefits. And, in my experience, healthcare providers want to pay workers as much as possible and as supported by non-negotiable Medicare and Medicaid rates, job performance, and outcomes.
But let’s also be honest about the perception of nursing homes. Part of the workforce shortage in our setting is due to the vilification of nursing homes based on generalization and misinformation. There is also a lack of respect for nursing home employees compared to healthcare staff in other settings.
As we begin 2023, we have an opportunity to recognize the positive and critical role nursing homes and their employees play in the continuum of healthcare and we have an opportunity to lift nursing homes and the nursing home workforce.
Finally, as we plan for life events and perhaps have caring conversations with loved ones about our aspirations and fears going forward, here are the top ten things I want you to know about nursing homes.
1. In a nation of 331 million people, about 1 million people are cared for in nursing homes. In Maryland, we have a population of 6 million people and approximately 27,000 nursing home beds.
2. Most people receive rehabilitative care in a nursing home and return home stronger within two to four weeks.
3. People receiving long-term care in nursing homes are very sick. In most cases, they suffer from many co-existing chronic conditions and have some form of dementia.
4. Our friends and family members who are living in and receiving medical care in a nursing home cannot be safely provided care at home or in another setting.
5. We all agonize about seeking long-term care in a nursing home for a loved one. In my experience, most families – including mine – put off that choice for too long. However, once we make that choice, we know it is the right thing to do.
6. No one should live in or receive care in a nursing home if their medical needs can be met elsewhere and they can safely be cared for at home or in another setting.
7. Medicaid rates for nursing homes and other care providers have been chronically underfunded for years, even before the pandemic. Together we must fight for adequate funding for continued access to quality care.
8. Focusing first on quality, we all have an obligation and opportunity to improve healthcare disparity, social determinants of health, and healthcare equity.
9. In healthcare and other enterprises, there is power and a competitive advantage in embracing diversity, inclusion, and equity.
10. Nursing homes will be most successful going forward if they frame themselves not just as operators of brick-and-mortar locations, but as organizations engaged in population health and healthcare equity, both inside and outside of their physical locations.
I hope that you will keep these thoughts in the back of your mind the next time you hear about or are discussing nursing homes. Together, we have an opportunity to create protect and improve quality care delivery for Marylanders in need. Let me end with this quote:
“The most effective way to manage change successfully is to create it.” — Peter F. Drucker
Joe DeMattos is President and CEO of the Health Facilities Association of Maryland, and a past-president of Har Sinai Congregation (now Har Sinai-Oheb Shalom Congregation).
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