Survey finds nursing homes closing beds
Grafton County Nursing Home has a few dozen beds it can’t fill. It’s not because patients aren’t interested; it’s because the beds can’t be staffed.
Craig Labore, the home’s administrator, said prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all of their beds were occupied. Now around one-third are unused. Without enough staff, in late May, the facility put a pause on new admissions.
“We’re still on pause right now” Labore said, “We are having some discussions about trying to resume. But it’s not going to be anywhere near the volume that we’re receiving applications for. The waitlist grows.”
Labore’s facility isn’t an outlier, according to a new survey commissioned by the New Hampshire Health Care Association, which represents dozens of New Hampshire nursing homes. Of the 37 facilities that responded to the survey, more than half reported pausing patient admission due to lack of available staff in the past two years.
For some, the pause was a few weeks here and there, but for others it was months long.
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