As nursing homes scramble to keep their doors open amid ongoing staffing shortages, two New York hospitals have created on-site virtual nursing home units to care for post-surgical patients they normally would discharge to nursing homes for rehabilitation.
The alternative level of care, or ALC, units were installed in mid-December at the University of Rochester’s Strong Memorial and Highland hospitals. Currently, Strong has around 40 such patients per day, Karen Keady, the facility’s chief nursing executive, told the Rochester Beacon.
“Moving those patients over to (an ALC) unit frees up acute-care beds to decompress our emergency department and be able to do surgeries we need to do and to do other things,” she said.
According to Keady, the ALC units are staffed like nursing homes. Patient care technicians, who already work in UR Medicine hospitals, are assuming the role CNAs play in nursing homes. Having such technicians provide direct care to ALC patients lets the hospitals deploy more RNs in acute-care settings, Keady said.
New York, like much of the nation, is facing severe staffing shortages in its nursing homes. The state has supplied National Guard troops to other facilities, and the governor also delayed a new rule that required operators to spend set amounts on staffing.
