Demand soars for health care staffing services
Hospitals, nursing homes and agencies struggle to fill positions.
Staffing agencies that help fill gaps with nurses and aides are reporting a soaring demand for their services, as both COVID19 patient case loads grow and the surging spread leaves more workers out sick or quarantined.
The shortage of nurses at the bedside is not new. However, the pandemic has exacerbated the problem.
Hospital leaders at Gov. Mike DeWine’s press conference have repeatedly saidthat they are more worried about running out of staffff than running out of beds. The Ohio National Guard at times has filled in at thinly staffed nursing homes.
Leslie Kahn, CEO Of AltoHealth Care Staffing, headquartered in the Dayton area, said they have about 400 to 500 active staff in the fifield and they’ve expanded their geographic footprint, with nurses traveling throughout the U.S.
“We play a vital role in staffing and meeting the needs of these organizations to help maintain safe patient ratios and provide safe patient care. Without staffing firms, they wouldn’t be able to continue, because we step in and fill the gap,” Kahn said.
She said the agency has had to juggle new demands such as the need to keep workers safe in the field and to follow new regulations. Some workers have older parents or family members with underlying conditions and have taken time off, she said.
“We had others that were excited and ready to go rise to the occasion and accept the challenge to her to work on these
COVID units,” she said.
Staffing agency use is on the rise in all types of long-term care, and in urban, suburban, and rural settings, according to PatrickSchwartz, spokesman for LeadingAgeOhio, which represents nonprofifit longterm care providers such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
“Ourmembers are reportingthatdemandis increasing across theboard, bothinsites that were previously dependent on agency and sites that have not utilized agency in the past,” Schwartz said.
He said theCOVID-19 pandemic has hada huge impact on staffiffing in long-termcare settings.
“When employees test positive or are exposed to otherswho have tested positive, facilities become dependent on agency as they navigate having dedicated staffff out for 14 days at a clip,” Schwartz said.
Thestaffiffingagenciesthemselves are struggling to fifind enough workers to fifill positions.
“We just cannot get all the people. We need people,” said Amy Colbert, administrator
at InterimHealthCare, which has offiffices in Dayton and Cincinnati.
It takes the right skills to be able to go into a facility and be comfortable in difffffffffffferent settings and stepping into newteams, according toColbert. They’ll hire and train newgrads who are the right
fifit but it often takes experience to be able to comfortably be an agency nurse.
“It takes a special person tokindof gotodifffffffffffferent facilities frequently and not be part of the staff,” Colbert said. “I used to be a director of nursing at an assisted living facility and we hired
in temp staffff there too, and it takes that personality that cancome inandbe very confifident in their skills.”
Kahn said she’s owned her business for almost 20 years and never saw anything like the current situation and feels thankful for the staffffthat has stepped up.
“We’veneverlivedthrough any like this. And I see so many true professionals just rise up and rise to the occasion and in their bravery in providing health care to patients,” Kahn said. “I’ve just been really impressed and I feel like they need to be acknowledged.”