From new regulations and constantly updated technology to ongoing labor issues, the business of long-term care has grown more complex than ever. With so many aspects of the business demanding urgent action, how should leaders focus their budget? While every company will have its own unique answer to that question, there are a few trends in long-term care (LTC) that will affect everyone.
Each LTC’s unique needs will be determined by a number of factors, including the regions and population served, technology in use, local regulatory requirements, and more. But even so, it’s still essential to understand the large-scale trends affecting the industry as a whole. Armed with that knowledge, LTC businesses can better cope with and even benefit from current trends in long-term care.
> Related: Don’t miss 5 Long-Term Care Strategies for Success
Trends in Long Term Care: A Summary from McKnight’s
In a recent report published by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, Kimberly Marselas outlined a few major trends in long-term care that affect virtually every LTC business, based on a series of conversations and consultations with experts.
Trend #1: Compliance. Preparing for “scrutiny and transparency” is a bigger priority than ever. A series of new regulations likely to be passed by lawmakers, such as the Nursing Home Improvement and Accountability Act, are requiting LTC providers to direct their attention to any local or federal regulations. Doing so can help improve operational efficiency, while failing to do so can be costly.
Trend #2. Skill development. Too often, nursing facilities can lag behind healthcare industry best practices. One way to overcome that challenge is to focus on the skills of existing staff. And that includes leaders and managers, she points out, as well as “administrators, medical directors, directors of nursing, and infection preventionists.”
Trend #3. Staff development. Finally, Marselas points to the need to invest in clinical staff to offset gaps revealed by the pandemic. The need for “better bed-side services and the lack thereof” includes hiring specialized skill as necessary, as well as identifying and implementing the telehealth systems needed to help them deliver care to the best of their ability.
Taking Action: What LTC Business Can Do Now
Having identified the more challenging trends in long-term care, the solutions are sometimes self-evident. Investing in skill development and clinical staff are straightforward tasks. Just as with performing an exhaustive operational analysis, it’s a matter of finding the best possible provider of those services, whether a professional training consultant or clinical staffing provider.
And the most efficient way to do that is to partner with a workforce solutions provider like CareerStaff. Rather than working reactively to patch up short-term staffing shortages or management gaps, companies like CareerStaff can help leaders begin implementing long-term solutions to eliminate those gaps altogether.
Partnering with a reputable, long-established company means getting access to a full suite of workforce solutions in addition to localized healthcare staffing services. That can help not only shore up short- and long-term staffing challenges, but also help organizations implement a more efficient labor process that will save money in the long term — a powerful asset in an industry that’s never been more competitive.
On top of that, workforce solutions can help LTC organizations actually extract value from some of these trends in long-term care. Staying abreast of compliance with the help of a managed services provider (MSP) can reveal new benefits, for example. Pennsylvania recently raised its Medicaid reimbursement rate by $35 per resident, per day, which could net up to $515 million for the state’s LTC businesses.
Failing to take advantage of new regulatory benefits could be just as costly as paying the penalties for violating them. And for some organizations, staying on top of both — as well as the ongoing staffing crunch — with the help of a single partner could be a real game changer at a difficult time.
“For almost all providers, a return to any kind of normalcy will necessitate a review of what still works and what doesn’t,” as Marselas puts it. “Others have an eye on large-scale change. After all, if necessity is the mother of invention, she certainly delivered over the last 18-plus months.”
> Ready to dive in? Get started with a workforce consultation from CareerStaff
Stay on Top of the Challenges & Trends in Long-Term Care with CareerStaff
As one of the nation’s leading providers of workforce solutions, CareerStaff is your source for the guidance, expertise, resources and workforce needed to best navigate the challenges and trends in long-term care today and well into the future. Learn more about our workforce solutions here, or get the ball rolling by submitting a staffing request now.