Assisted Living Scheduling Software Can Help Industry Recover
The COVID pandemic and The Great Resignation have combined to hit the assisted living industry with a one-two punch. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than 200,000 residents and staff in long-term care facilities have died from COVID-19. The Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker notes that employment in nursing homes and community care facilities has continued to plummet while other healthcare staffing has recovered. Employment at nursing care facilities has taken a 15% nosedive since February 2020, while community elder care facilities have seen an 11% decrease in employment during the same timeframe. Assisted living scheduling software has the potential to help the industry recover.
What Factors Contribute to the Assisted Living Staffing Crisis?
One insight into the current staffing crisis is provided by the National Association of Health Care Assistants. The organization reports the results of a survey of certified nursing assistants (CNAs) that found 84% wanted higher pay and benefits, while slightly fewer than half wanted career advancement opportunities or better training. CNAs cited staffing shortages, burnout, and lack of respect from leadership as their most pressing challenges.
The Role of the Federal Government
In his 2022 State of the Union address, President Biden laid out a number of initiatives aimed at improving nursing home care. For example, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will conduct research and issue new rules within the next year that outline a new minimum staffing ratio. Further, CMS will measure and publish staff turnover and staffing levels on the weekends, and make payment changes based on, among other factors, the perceived adequacy of staffing. In addition, CMS will work to support state efforts to improve staffing and workforce sustainability.
How Can Assisted Living Scheduling Software Help?
Assisted living scheduling software can help nursing homes and assisted living facilities on two fronts. First, cloud-based employee schedules can be accessed from any smartphone, allowing staff members to view schedules in real-time and schedulers to update shifts to adequately cover staffing needs. Better coverage in turn leads to fewer staffing gaps, less employee burnout, and improved teamwork, all of which are challenges in many facilities. Alleviating these challenges is crucial to workforce sustainability.
The second way that scheduling software can help is by proactively setting systems in place to address upcoming CMS staffing rules. Scheduling software can help ensure adequate staffing, which will ultimately be subject to public scrutiny. Such publicly available information will likely become a factor in placement decisions, so having assisted living scheduling software in place has the potential to support a facility’s overall placement and revenue goals.
MDsyncNET’s cloud-based assisted living scheduling software delivers four advantages: low set-up fees, simple to learn, a single source of truth, and painless scheduling swaps. Call 888-506-5061 to see how MDsyncNET can help you integrate assisted living scheduling software into your facility.