‘It’s Almost Like a Ghost Town.’ Most Nursing Homes Overstated Staffing for Years

Jul 7, 2018 | Research & Studies of PBJ Data

‘Like A Ghost Town’: Erratic Nursing Home Staffing Revealed Through New Records

Most nursing homes had fewer nurses and caretaking staff than they had reported to the government for years, according to new federal data, bolstering the long-held suspicions of many families that staffing levels were often inadequate.

The records for the first time reveal frequent and significant fluctuations in day-to-day staffing, with particularly large shortfalls on weekends. On the worst staffed days at an average facility, the new data show, on-duty personnel cared for nearly twice as many residents as they did when the staffing roster was fullest.

FROM

Kaiser Health News and New York Times

PUBLISHED

July 7, 2018

SOURCE

“‘Like A Ghost Town’: Erratic Nursing Home Staffing Revealed Through New Records.” Kaiser Health News, 6 Feb. 2019, khn.org/news/like-a-ghost-town-erratic-nursing-home-staffing-revealed-through-new-records.

Rau, Jordan. “‘It’s Almost Like a Ghost Town.’ Most Nursing Homes Overstated Staffing for Years.” The New York Times, 7 July 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/07/07/health/nursing-homes-staffing-medicare.html.