774 nursing home closures in 4 years: Group warns of care disruptions
Amid increased demands for geriatric hospital care and more patients being boarded while waiting for a post-acute bed comes a devastating statistic: 774 nursing homes have closed since 2020, and only seven new facilities were opened in 2024.
The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living’s 2024 Access to Care report looked at the cumulative effect of continued nationwide labor shortages, inflation and increased operational costs and chronic government underfunding for nursing homes across the nation.
The organization found that 46% of nursing homes are limited to new admissions and 57% of nursing facilities have a waiting list for new residents.
Since 2020, there are 62,567 fewer nursing home beds. Twenty percent of nursing homes have closed a unit, wing or floor due to labor shortages and at least 774 nursing homes have closed entirely in the last four years. This has displaced more than 28,400 residents.
Read the full story from Becker’s Hospital Review here.
