Interview with Center For Rural Policy and Development Senior Researcher Kelly Asche
MINNESOTA – The Center For Rural Policy and Development has a report “The Declining Capacity of Nursing Facility Care in Rural Minnesota” saying as of February the state has 33 percent fewer nursing facility beds compared to 2005.
The most severe drops have happened in Greater Minnesota where entirely rural counties have 41 percent fewer nursing facility beds compared to 2005. The report states Northwest Minnesota is experiencing severe declines in beds. An example being Red Lake County has lost all its nursing facility beds since 2005.
Center For Rural Policy and Development Senior Researcher Kelly Asche says the decline in beds is due in part to a shift of preference to assisted living facilities and home-based care. He adds nursing homes are taking care of people who need the most care.
The report says Rural Minnesota will see peak demand for nursing home beds in 2037, but some facilities can’t meet the demand now.
“There’s one nursing home that said they have such a workforce shortage that they screen patients every day that want to come into the nursing home and they have to turn patients away every single day because they can’t meet their needs because of workforce shortages,” Asche said.
Asche says it looks like people may have to wait for care until a nursing home bed opens up, use home based care, have longer hospital stays or be cared by family and friends with capacity being high for nursing home care in Greater Minnesota.
More access to labor force in North Dakota.
Seeing people moving further away from home. Not as many home based care in small towns.
Nursing home operators believes workers should get paid more and are underpaid.
Earlier this year Minnesota’s workforce standards board agreed to raise pay to $23.49 per hour on average for nursing home workers starting in 2027.
“Right now it’s an unfunded mandate. For a lot of our rural, small facilities that are already struggling financially to meet the needs because of the reimbursement rates from Medicare, things don’t look great. They’re wondering how they’re going to make all this new system work for pay raises,” Asche said.
Click here to read the full report.
