Covid-19 vaccine. Image courtesy: ThedaCare.
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — There’s a shortage of Nursing Home staff, and some are concerned it might get worse.
North Shore Healthcare CEO David Mills runs 57 nursing home facilities and 11 assisted living facilities across the upper Midwest.
David Mills runs 57 nursing home facilities and 11 assisted living facilities across the upper Midwest.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a more difficult time with staffing than I have today in the many years that I’ve been in the business. That’s really for a lot of reasons. It’s a very difficult job,” North Shore Healthcare CEO David Mills said.
In August, President Joe Biden announced that his administration will require that nursing home staff be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition for those facilities to continue receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funding.
For nursing homes like the Odd Fellow Home in Green Bay, CEO Charlene Everett says the mandate is the nursing home’s biggest issue right now.
“It so negatively could impact our workforce. It’s frightening, what will happen,” Everett said.
Everett says Odd Fellow Home is adequately staffed right now, but says the vaccine mandate could potentially change that in the future.
“I anticipate that the percentage of people who are unvaccinated, a rather significant percentage of them, may leave. It all depends on what the government decides to do with the mandate. If the mandate is only for nursing homes, we will lose employees, and then we will be in trouble. If the mandate is made to be all of healthcare, that levels the field a little bit better,” Everett said.
Everett says healthcare leaders have to learn to do things differently when it comes to their staff.
“We as healthcare leaders have to learn to treat them better, train them better, perhaps make more advancement opportunities. We have to take a look at the industry and see what we’re doing, not that we’ve done it wrong, we need to do it different,” Everett said.
Mills says while it’s a challenging time, it’s also inspiring.
“With the right leadership and communication, I really believe that we’re going to be able to come out of this and continue to meet the needs of our residents,” Mills said.
President Biden’s mandate has not taken effect yet.
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