LTCcovid Country Profiles

Responses to 2.10. Financial and other impacts of the pandemic on Long-Term Care providers

The LTCcovid International Living report is a “wiki-style” report addressing 68 questions on characteristics of Long-Term Care (LTC) systems, impacts of COVID-19 on LTC, measures adopted to mitigate these impacts and new reforms countries are adopting to address structural problems in LTC systems and to improved preparedness for future events. It was compiled and updated voluntarily by experts on LTC all over the world. Members of the Social Care COVID-19 Resilience and Recovery project moderated the entries and edited as needed. It was updated regularly until the end of 2022.

The report can be read by question/topic (below) or by country: COVID-19 and Long-Term Care country profiles.

To cite this report (please note the date in which it was consulted as the contents changes over time):

Comas-Herrera A, Marczak J, Byrd W, Lorenz-Dant K, Patel D, Pharoah D (eds.) and LTCcovid contributors.  (2022) LTCcovid International living report on COVID-19 and Long-Term Care. LTCcovid, Care Policy & Evaluation Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science. https://doi.org/10.21953/lse.mlre15e0u6s6

Copyright is with the LTCCovid and Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, LSE.

 

The high numbers of deaths in nursing home affected the occupancy rate of homes which led to loss of income especially of those hardest hit by the pandemic. The government sought to address this through payments for providers (Source: https://ltccovid.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/COVID-19-Long-Term-Care-situation-in-the-Netherlands-_-the-second-wave-25-November-2020-2.pdf).

Last updated: January 6th, 2022

Care home providers

There are concerns about the viability of some care home providers, due to lower occupancy rates (as a result of a high number of deaths and people putting off entering care homes), and higher costs linked to additional staffing and PPE expenditure. Analysis by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published in July 2020 shows that there has been a substantial reduction in admissions to care homes during the pandemic, although the rates vary significantly. Admissions funded by local authorities for the week ending June 7, 2020, were on average of 72% (range 43 to 113%) of the number received in the same period in 2019. In contrast, self-funded admissions, were on average at 35% of the 2019 levels (25% to 51%). One source reported that the occupancy of care home beds dropped approximately 13% over the course of the pandemic.

Community-based care providers

Data from a survey by the CQC showed that, as of May 2 to 8, 2020, around a fifth of agencies were caring for at least one person with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. Providers also reported that access to PPE was a big concern, with many instances of wrong or poor quality items being delivered. While homecare services were experiencing lower levels of activity (homecare hours were at 94% of pre-pandemic levels), local authorities continued to pay for planned hours, which helped to protect the providers they commission from, from the decrease in activity.

Last updated: March 11th, 2022   Contributors: William Byrd  |  

Impact on workforce shortages

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reported by the KFF Health Systems Tracker shows that the number of people working in Long-Term Care Facilities has declined by substantial between February 2020 and November 2021. The number of people employed in community elder care facilities declined by 11.1%, from 976,100 employees to 867,700. The number of people working in nursing care facilities decreased by 15.0%, from 1.59 million to 1.35. This builds on a previous trend, employment on nursing homes had been declining at an average of 0.09% per month between 2017 and early 2020.

Increased wages

The KFF Health Systems Tracker also reports that average earnings rose by over 14.7% between February 2020 and October 2021, from $669.90 to $768.56 per week. Wages of home healthcare workers rose by 13.8% from $586.46 to $667.28.

Last updated: January 5th, 2022

Contributors to the LTCcovid Living International Report, so far:

Elisa Aguzzoli, Liat Ayalon, David Bell, Shuli Brammli-Greenberg, Erica Breuer, Jorge Browne Salas, Jenni Burton, William Byrd, Sara Charlesworth, Adelina Comas-Herrera, Natasha Curry, Gemma Drou, Stefanie Ettelt, Maria-Aurora Fenech, Thomas Fischer, Nerina Girasol, Chris Hatton, Kerstin Hämel, Nina Hemmings, David Henderson, Kathryn Hinsliff-Smith, Iva Holmerova, Stefania Ilinca, Hongsoo Kim, Margrieta Langins, Shoshana Lauter, Kai Leichsenring, Elizabeth Lemmon, Klara Lorenz-Dant, Lee-Fay Low, Joanna Marczak, Elisabetta Notarnicola, Cian O’Donovan, Camille Oung, Disha Patel, Martina Paulikova, Eleonora Perobelli, Daisy Pharoah, Stacey Rand, Tine Rostgaard, Olafur H. Samuelsson, Maximilien Salcher-Konrad, Benjamin Schlaepfer, Cheng Shi, Cassandra Simmons, Andrea E. Schmidt, Agnieszka Sowa-Kofta, Wendy Taylor, Thordis Hulda Tomasdottir, Sharona Tsadok-Rosenbluth, Sara Ulla Diez, Lisa van Tol, Patrick Alexander Wachholz, Jae Yoon Yi, Jessica J. Yu

This report has built on previous LTCcovid country reports and is supported by the Social Care COVID-19 Resilience and Recovery project, which is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programme (NIHR202333) and by the International Long-Term Care Policy Network and the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the funders.