Posts tagged with "Full Capacity"

Nursing Home Staff Shortages

Amidst the perseverance of the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry has taken a massive blow. There are intense staffing shortages in the field, and the public is suffering from these scarcities. The Washington Post gave a detailed report on these worsening staff deficiencies, more specifically in long term care facilities.

Nursing homes tend to lessen the stress on hospitals as recovered patients typically move there after being released. Without proper staffing, though, facilities have not been able to take in patients from hospitals. A specific example of this misfortune stems from the Terrace View nursing home in Buffalo, New York. The home is currently not running at full capacity, and there are up to 22 beds not being used due to lack of staff.

The Washington Post article elaborates on this disaster, highlighting another facility affected. “That means some fully recovered patients in the adjacent Erie County Medical Center must stay in their hospital rooms, waiting for a bed in the nursing home. Which means some patients in the emergency department, who should be admitted to the hospital, must stay there until a hospital bed opens up. The emergency department becomes stretched so thin that 10 to 20 percent of arrivals leave without seeing a caregiver — after an average wait of six to eight hours, according to the hospital’s data.”

Many long-term care facilities across the country are facing these same troubles. The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) found 58% of nursing homes are cutting down on arrivals, again, because of the shortage of staff members.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that 425,000 long term care workers left the industry since February 2020. Though other industries have seen economic growth since the onset of the pandemic, nursing homes have not had the same luck. “Remarkably, despite the horrific incidents of death and illness in nursing homes at the outset of the pandemic, more staff departures have come during the economic recovery. As restaurants and shops reopened and hiring set records, nursing homes continued to bleed workers, even as residents returned.”

These troubles are heightened in more rural areas. The article, too, depicts the story of Diakonos Group in Medford, Oklahoma, that had to shut down since there was simply not enough staff. The facility provided care for patients with mental health needs, but after the pandemic started, they found that their staff had endured too much. Diakonos Group CEO Scott Pilgrim explained that although the business offered a raise in hourly wages, bonuses and overtime, employees continued to leave, and they could not withstand these absences.

AHCA/NCAL urges lawmakers to work with the long term care division of healthcare to fix this staffing crisis and devote resources to employ caregivers. As hospitals continue to be directly affected by this catastrophe, change must be made as soon as possible. AHCA/NCAL encourages Congress to take action and ease these tensions placed on both hospitals and long term care facilities.

Vaccine illustration by Heather Skovlund for 360 Magazine

Vaccination Proof × Sports Venues

More Than Half of Americans Want Vaccine Proof, Social Distancing and Masks as Sports Venues Move to Full Capacity

Among Sports Fans 60 Percent Favor Vaccine Requirement for Event Attendance; 72 Percent Want Social Distancing Sections

As many states move to “reopen” and allow full capacity at sports venues, sports fans and the general public seemingly remain cautious about event attendance without proof of vaccination, the wearing of masks and/or social distancing.

These were the findings of a Seton Hall Sports Poll conducted May 21-24 geographically spread across the United States using a national representative sample weighted according to gender, age, ethnicity, education, income and geography based on U.S. Census Bureau figures. The Poll surveyed 1,554 adult respondents with a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percent.

Social Distance Seating
A rather large number – 68 percent of the general population, 72 percent of self-described sports fans and 77 percent of avid fans – favored designated areas within venues to separate those who wished to maintain social distance seating.

Proof of Vaccination
As to a requirement by sports teams that attendees of sporting events show proof of vaccination, 53 percent of the general population agreed. The number went up to 60 percent in favor of such a requirement among sports fans and to 71 percent for avid fans. 

Masks
As for wearing masks while attending sporting events, it was 52 percent of the general population in favor of this requirement, while 56 percent of sports fans and 59 percent of avid fans agreed.

The respondents who disagreed with these precautionary requirements at sporting event venues were comparatively low. For special sections, it was 18-17-15 percent (general public, sports fans, avid fans); for vaccination proof, 32-29-20 percent disagreeing, and for mask wearing, 32-33-30 percent disagreeing.

Fans Who Would Attend Sporting Events with Vaccine, PPE and Social Distancing Up 7%

Among the general public this question received a modest uptick of just one percent (from 50 to 51 percent) since it was asked last month. However, among sports fans the positive response rose seven points to 69 percent who said they would be willing to attend an outdoor sporting event with vaccine, PPE and social distancing – the largest jump in positive responses since the vaccine rollout (as illustrated in table below).

November 2020 – May 2021: If you were to receive the Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, would you attend…A live outdoor sporting event in-person, with personal protection equipment (PPE), socially distancing measures, and restricted attendance?

This is a significant indicator of the trend to return,”said Charles Grantham, director of the Center for Sport Management within Seton Hall’s Stillman School of Business. “Sports fans seem cautiously optimistic, but also seem to favor precautions regardless of the official relaxation of restrictions over the last month.”

For indoor attendance, what was 42 percent (general population), 56 percent (sports fans) and 26 percent (nonfans), is now 43-59-21 percent respectively.    

Full House?
 Perhaps consistent with the overall call for caution, when asked if leagues and teams should allow full capacity fan attendance in their stadiums without any mention of precautionary measures in the question, 46 percent of the public said yes, with 36 percent opposed. Among sports fans the number in favor rose to 54 percent (33 percent opposed), but still lagged by 15 percent those who said they would attend with vaccination, PPE and social distancing.

“Fifteen percentage points is a margin worth noting, and the leagues would be wise to take heed of the concerns of their customers,” said Seton Hall Marketing Professor and Poll Methodologist Daniel Ladik. “The ‘new normal’ appears to be a cautious one.”

ABOUT THE POLL

The Seton Hall Sports Poll, conducted regularly since 2006, is performed by the Sharkey Institute within the Stillman School of Business. This poll was conducted online by YouGov Plc. using a national representative sample weighted according to gender, age, ethnicity, education, income and geography, based on U.S. Census Bureau figures. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S residents. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls. The Seton Hall Sports Poll has been chosen for inclusion in iPoll by Cornell’s Roper Center for Public Opinion Research and its findings have been published everywhere from USA Today, ESPN, The New York Times, Washington Post, AP, and Reuters to The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNBC, NPR, Yahoo Finance, Fox News and many points in between.