A UW CHWS study on skilled nursing facility ownership, co-authored by UW CHWS Affiliate Investigators Rachel Prusynski and Tracy Mroz, along with UW CHWS Director Bianca Frogner, was featured in a recent article in McKnights Long-Term Care News. The study highlights how changes in nursing home ownership often result in increased patient admissions without proportional increases in staffing, particularly among nursing staff.
Analyzing data from January 2018 to June 2023, researchers found that more than 2,500 skilled nursing facilities underwent ownership changes. On average, these facilities admitted 2.36 more patients per day while reducing direct care staff by 0.07 hours per resident daily—primarily due to a 0.09-hour decline in nurse staffing per resident. Lead author Rachel Prusynski emphasized that while immediate staff layoffs or payroll reductions weren’t always implemented, the failure to maintain existing nurse-patient ratios as patient census increased led to noticeable imbalances in care.
Read more here and check out relevant studies below:
- Impacts of Skilled Nursing Facility Change of Ownership on Staffing
- Relationships between Therapy Staff Turnover and Skilled Nursing Facility Outcomes