Nursing homes during covid

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - AARP’S annual report lists a third of the nation’s 15,000 nursing homes experienced a shortage of nurses or aides in 2021 raising concerns over patient care. The shortage was due in part to staff exposure to covid-19.

Cory Back, general manager for The Village at Skyline Pines Assisted Living & Memory Care, says they are the exception and they are thriving

He states “Through the time of covid, we have never been short of staff, we did have to increase our compensation package significantly. About 25 percent to be honest over the past two years. Trying to maintain the staff we have and bring new people in.”

The Village at Skyline Pines currently has 66 staff members, 80 senior citizens who live at the facility and they have the capacity to house 100 people.

Back says while some nursing homes faced a staffing crisis...his team reached out to help. One of the main reasons why The Village is thriving is because they made health insurance for staff a priority.

Back states “We altered the amount of health insurance we pay. For instance, we pay 70 percent, and we have packaged all the way down to 25 hundred deductibles.

As the pandemic moves toward an endemic... He says the staff .. and residents are ready.

“We are looking forward to our residents being able to resume normal life and go out with their families without worrying about getting covid. Sadly, we have become very skilled at fighting this virus. We have to get beyond it, we have to figure a way to resume a normal life. The shadow has to go away.

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