Researcher: Target funding to address potentially harmful staffing disparities

Staffing shortages may be ravaging nursing homes around the country, but the losses may be especially harmful in poorer areas, with fewer qualified clinicians leading to a greater likelihood of poor outcomes, researchers told McKnight’s Wednesday.

In a massive new study of more than 12,000 nursing homes, investigators found startling differences in quality of care, staffing levels and resident outcomes in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the country.

“Most skilled nursing facilities are already concerned about low staff-to-resident ratios, but our analysis reveals that this gap is even worse in disadvantaged communities,” said Jasmine Travers, assistant professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing and senior author of the Aug. 8 Journal of the American Geriatrics Society study.