Closures Hit Personal Care, Assisted Living

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Some 35 personal care and assisted living facilities in Pennsylvania have closed their doors during the ongoing pandemic but state officials say the number of available beds have actually increased over the same period.
The closures are noted in periodic reports posted by the state Health Department. Industry experts say the closings may be due to a variety of factors and not just the Covid-19 pandemic.
"While we do not collect data on the reason for a facility's closure, we are hearing that COVID is just one reason for closures. Others include the labor shortage, facility plant issues, and retirements," said Brandon Cwalina of the state Department of Human Services.
He said that it appears that most of the closures were among smaller facilities that primarily serve recipients of the Supplemental Security Income program.
Offsetting the closures he said were new larger facilities that opened during the same time period.
In February of 2020 there were 64,731 personal home care beds available and 4,195 assisted living slots. In July of this year the personal care beds jumped to 65,404 while assisted living beds reached 4,984.
He said that while the facilities that closed generally had 20 or fewer beds, the larger ones that opened had 70 or more slots.
Though the facilties that closed were not among its members, officials of the Pennsylvania Healthcare Association (PHCA), which represents nursing homes along with asssisted living facilities, said they were aware of an uptick in shutdowns.
"Much like all of long-term care, there is a workforce problem and it’s our understanding that staffing played into the reasons for these closures. Funding to support operations and staffing could also be a factor," said Eric Heisler of the PHCCA.
Citing the staffing issues Heisler said that could likely lead to facilties limiting admissions and creating access problems. Since the closed facilties primarily served SSI recipients, they would be the one impacted, he added. "The staffing concerns are also being felt at the nursing home level and it is also causing an access to care issue as providers are limiting admissions based on the amount of workers they have to meet the state’s requirements," he concluded.
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