Greed Kills

Greed and Staffing

The New York Times published an incredible article about greed in the health care industry causing unsafe staffing in hospitals and nursing homes. In the Opinion Video, nurses blame profit motives and greed as the root cause of the nursing crisis. Chronic understaffing by profit-driven hospitals predates the pandemic.

“I could no longer work in critical care under the conditions I was being forced to work under with poor staffing,” explains one nurse, “and that’s when I left.”

They also tear down the common misconception that there’s a shortage of nurses. In fact, there are more qualified nurses today in America than ever before.

The video is eye-opening and tragic. We can do better.

Occupancy

Meanwhile, the nursing home industry demands more bailout money despite the thousands of preventable deaths. CliftonLarsonAllen’s report showed the median operating margin for skilled nursing facilities in 2020 was 1.5% lower when compared to the previous year when COVID-19 relief funding was removed.

Occupancy or census is another strong indicator of SNF financial performance. Occupancy fell below 80% for the first time in 2020. The median SNF occupancy rate was 77.5% for 2020, well below the 85% rate found in 2019. The full report can be found here.