COVID Update

Good Afternoon –

RenVilla, Prairie View, and Meadows:

No new positives. Surveillance testing will continue. No change.

The county transmission levels can be found at the link below. In addition to this information, you can find Renville County’s 7-day Metrics including:

  • Cases: 59
  • % Positivity: (14.66%)
  • Deaths: (<10)
  • % Eligible Population Fully Vaccinated: (55.7%)
  • New Hospital Admissions: (2)

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view

Renville Health Services is facing unprecedented, record-level workforce shortages similar to assisted living and nursing homes across Minnesota. The alarming data below shows how deeply workforce shortages in our industry have impacted access to safe, quality care when and where seniors need it.

  • There are 23,000 unfilled positions in these senior care settings.
  • In August, we experienced 1.5 times more resignations than hires
  • Nearly 70% of nursing homes are limiting admissions due to lack of staff to care for additional residents and of that, 25% have stopped admitting new residents completely.

Shortages of staff are impacting access to care across the continuum. The hold on LTC admissions is now creating backups in hospitals that impact the delivery of health care for everyone. Hospitals are unable to discharge patients to appropriate post-acute or long-term care settings. This in turn, impacts family caregivers and their ability to return to their own jobs.

We need your help so that lawmakers understand that we cannot wait for workforce solutions. Contact your legislators today and ask them to ensure that funding for permanent wage increases for senior caregivers are included as a priority in the upcoming special legislative special session. The date of the special session has not yet been announced, but legislative leaders are in active negotiations to determine the priorities to address, and it may only be a matter of weeks before lawmakers return. Don’t wait; we need action now! 

Link: Workforce Solutions Can’t Wait (p2a.co)

Thank you, and please let me know if you have any questions.

Casie Knoshal