Committee grapples with County Nursing Home budget

LACONIA — The $13.4 million budget for the Belknap County Nursing Home, which includes funds for significant employee pay raises, underwent scrutiny by the County Delegation’s Executive Committee. But a review of wages, which accounts for 39% of the spending plan, was continued after the time allotted for the committee’s meeting on Wednesday ran out.

The committee expects to resume its review of the budget early next month, Committee Chair Ray Howard said after the meeting adjourned.

The nursing home budget that is being recommended by the County Commission is 14% higher than this year’s. Most of the increase is attributed to higher amounts for pay which the commissioners and nursing home administrators believe is necessary to keep employees from leaving for better paying nursing jobs elsewhere, and also to improve the ability to recruit people to fill dozens of existing vacancies.

Higher pay, and increasing costs for most other operating expenses, coupled with the ongoing staff shortage, prompted Howard twice to wonder about the long-term viability of the nursing home as a county-run service.

“At what point to we consider privatizing the nursing home?” Howard asked. “The way it’s working now it’s not an advantage.”

“That’s a political decision,” County Administrator Debra Shackett said in response, adding that the same question was raised a number of years ago and the decision then was not to pursue it.

None of the other three committee members had any comment on Howard’s remarks. But state Rep. Mike Sylvia, who chairs the delegation, said it was questionable that the nursing home would be able to fill the staff vacancies, given the overall shortage of nurses.

“Nurses are getting pricey, but we’re having trouble getting nurses,” he said. “What reality are we looking at?” he asked shortly before the committee adjourned before it had an opportunity to delve into the wage line items.

Nursing Home Administrator Shelley Richardson told the committee that 32 staff positions at the nursing home are vacant — 25 full-time and seven part-time.

“We’re not going to (be able) to fill all those,” Howard observed.

In late November the county commissioners approved a change to the county’s wage scale in an effort to halt staff departures. Shackett said the pay raises were for the most part in the order of $3 to $5 an hour.

As proposed, the nursing home budget comprises the largest single share of the $31.4 million county budget — 40%.

At an earlier meeting, Richardson told the representatives that this year there has been a 70% turnover among LNAs at the long-term care facility, and a 52% turnover among registered nurses and LPNs.

The number of residents at the nursing home stands at 52, far below its licensed capacity of 96 residents, Richardson said Wednesday. Richardson has said that the home has been operating well below its capacity in order to maintain required staff-to-resident ratios.