Nursing homes will soon have to meet minimum staffing requirements

Atlanta - About 15,000 nursing homes in the United States house up to 1.2 million mostly older Americans and will soon have to meet new minimum staffing requirements. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) says that the average nursing home of about 100 residents will have to have at least two registered nurses and 10 to 11 nurse aides on staff each day. 

Homes will also be required to have one RN on duty 24/7 to provide skilled nursing care. 

Nursing home reacts to new nursing rules 

Deke Cateau, CEO of A.G. Rhodes, which operates nursing care facilities in the Atlanta area, says he understands why staffing is a priority. 

"We deal with an extremely vulnerable population, particularly in a population where many of them are living with dementia," Cateau says. "So, I understand that expectation, and I completely understand the government, because of that, wanting to put some sort of standards in place." 

However, Cateau says nursing homes are struggling with a critical staffing shortage, worsened by the pandemic. 

"It is especially difficult in nursing," Cateau explains. "Registered nurses, in particular, are extremely scarce in supply." 

It is a problem echoed by Chris Downing, president and CEO of the Georgia Health Care Association, the trade group that represents most nursing homes in the state. 

Cateau says about 5,000 nursing home staffers left during the pandemic. 

"There is not a provider in the state of Georgia right now that doesn't want to hire more staff," Downing says. "They all want to hire more staff. The problem is they aren't there." 

Nursing home rules to be phased in 

The staffing rules will be phased in over 5 years, giving rural nursing care facilities more time to staff up. 

There will be no federal funding to pay for more staff. 

Nursing care company owners or facilities will have to cover the additional staffing, which CMS says could cost up to $6 billion a year. 

"To say that I'm disappointed is an understatement," Downing says. "This was really a huge swing and a miss by the (Biden) administration." 

Melanie McNeil, Georgia's long-term care ombudsman, supports the minimum staffing mandate. 

"People are demanding better care and raising these issues," McNeil says. 

She says two of the top five most common complaints they get from nursing home residents are about slow staff response times, either when they push a button for help or need assistance with basic hygiene, like using the bathroom. 

So, McNeil says, staffing minimums are essential. 

"And I think the industry probably told you that the residents are more complicated than they used to be," McNeil says. "They have more residents with memory care issues. They have more residents that have multiple chronic conditions."