Healthcare Organization

Healthcare Organization

Executive Summary

Retaining employees is a great dilemma for long-term care facilities. Renfrey Memorial Hospital (RMH) is a 200 bed regional hospital located in the Midwest. The corporation is relatively small unlike large corporations who have resources specifically aimed at retaining their employees while smaller facilities do not. Using various resources, I will examine the issue of employee retention in long-term care facilities. I found that the problem stems from different areas: lack of staff, growing competition for the same pool of workers, money, and benefits. While these issues are a problem, they can be improved. Long-term care facilities need to be innovative and creative in developing ways to keep their employees.

Introduction

Developing and retaining quality nurses and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) are crucial to the future of long-term care (LTC). Recruitment alone will not keep pace with the aging workforce, the rising acuity of nursing home residents, and the growing competition for the same pool of workers. A “care gap” will be anticipated, with a smaller proportion of younger adults available to function as formal and informal caregivers to the growing number of older adults (Hollinger-Smith, 2003).

Nursing homes across the country continue to experience a staffing crisis that can jeopardize quality of care and life for residents. This crisis includes insufficient numbers of staff, including certified nursing assistants (CNAs), licensed practical or vocational nurses (LPN/LVNs) and registered nurses (RNs). The reasons for the staffing crisis are complex and multi-factorial (NCCNHR, 2008).

According to the National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR) is a particular and industry-wide problem. Although turnover rates vary by region, various provider and other surveys indicate CNA turnover to be between 49 percent and 143 percent. The most frequent reasons for leaving a nursing home environment are unrealistic workload and low wages. (NCCNHR, 2008)

The current census at Renfrey Memorial Hospital is 96 residents. On the payroll of this facility is 110 employees which approximately 20 of these employees are PRN staff. PRN staff is available when the facility is short-staffed. It is critical to keep PRN staff on the payroll at all times. Should the state come in for a surprise inspection there must be sufficient staff on the floor to care for the residents.

Renfrey Memorial Hospital is very team-oriented except for the few stragglers that refuse to join the team. Being on this facilities team is empowering to the employee that joins the team at Renfrey Memorial Hospital. In light of this, there is still a very large turnover rate for this facility. As this paper proceeds, it will explain the turnover rate for nursing homes and the impact on the employees.

Once a week the administrator receives, a report that informs her of total terminations for that week along with the new hires that week and the accumulated percentage turnover for the year. The turnover for the month of June was 82.35 percent, which is not acceptable for Renfrey Memorial Hospital. This turnover rate mostly amounts to CNAs and dietary staff which are the most difficult ...