08/24/2023
Nursing Home Staffing Ratios Are Coming: We're On It
As the nursing home staffing ratios proposed rule sits at the Office of Budget and Management (OBM), LeadingAge has made use of every moment by advocating for a rational, effective approach to staffing:
- Fighting for a White House Roundtable on Workforce Solutions: While addressing the details of the staffing ratio proposal, LeadingAge has their eye on root problems and larger solutions that will sustain members and improve the future of the field. In a letter to President Biden this week, LeadingAge urged the Administration to convene stakeholders to ensure that nursing home providers aren’t left to bear the burden of the workforce crisis alone.
- Maximizing Our Message with the Media: Effective advocacy includes a bold and clear public voice, and LeadingAge’s role as the trusted voice for aging was in full effect this week. LeadingAge’s public statement and press outreach led to at least one story elevating the message. McKnight’s Long Term Care News published LeadingAge’s Sloan to Biden: Let’s talk so nursing homes don’t ‘shoulder entire burden’ on staffing. “We’ve been pounding the table about the many challenges that providers are navigating, with workforce being a top concern for more than a year now,” Katie Smith-Sloan of LeadingAge said, “we need to be heard on this; quality of care and staffing work hand-in-hand.”
Giving Members Ongoing Insight in Our Advocacy and Expert Perspective: The new LeadingAge.org is members’ first stop for finding the very latest on all national association work—and to help member providers track this critical issue, LeadingAge published a new serial post that tracks each new happening around staffing ratios. A new members-only blog has also been posted, in which LeadingAge's Ruth Katz offers her point of view on the long-awaited proposed rule.