For nursing homes and other long-term care facilities dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, it's been a bleak 10 months.

But it appears there's some light on the horizon.

“There's a genuine buzz of excitement around the facilities over the vaccine,” Mark O'Donnell, Lutheran SeniorLife communications director, said. “I don't get excited easily, but it was uplifting to see the response among residents and staff as I watch this process take place.”

With the proliferation of two vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, that have received emergency approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, there is hope this year of illness and isolation will — sooner, rather than later — come to a close.

The vaccines will help residents in a less obvious way, too: It makes it less likely the facilities will need to look for outside help when employees are out of work due to COVID-19.

Staffing

For many Butler County nursing homes, COVID-19 has been a compounding factor, affecting not only residents, but also staffing.

Mary Susan Yurek, chief quality officer at Quality Life Services, which operates facilities in Chicora and Sarver, said the facilities haven't had their staffing level fall below required minimums since the pandemic, and they usually schedule more nursing hours than is required.

“I'm certainly not going to say, though, that it's sometimes not a trouble, between staff calling off, or staff having COVID or being exposed to COVID,” she said. “That's obviously a problem, when you have a staff member who you expect to come in but, due to exposure or a positive test, they can't come in for at least 10 days.”

Lutheran SeniorLife facilities, which include St. John Community in Mars and Passavant Community in Zelienople, have seen similar issues regardless of location.

“I think we've had those challenges across the board. There may have been a time where any one entity has had more challenges than the other,” O'Donnell said. “I don't think there's any part of the system that's as fully staffed as we want to be, but the challenge is, you get fully staffed in the census and another area drops.”

Frank Skrip, director of public relations at Concordia Lutheran Ministries, said Concordia has “never come close to reaching critical levels” in terms of staffing, and has not had to hire outside help. But Concordia's situation, at least with staffing, seems to be the exception that proves the rule.

Lutheran SeniorLife and Quality Life Services have both utilized outside staffing, even turning to the National Guard for supplemental staffing. Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Butler has also utilized help from the outside.

“We utilize staffing agencies to ensure the care is provided to our residents and have reached out to agencies as our staff has experienced COVID-19 as well,” Sunnyview administrator Tricia Kradel said.

O'Donnell posited that facilities might be having staffing problems due to a limited number of skilled nursing staff available.

“This is not a situation that is unique to any particular entity,” he said. “I think everybody's struggling right now, and we're all trying to recruit from the same talent pool, and it's very small right now.”

For these reasons, some facilities have turned to offering more benefits than in the past or tried new recruitment methods. Melissa Hanlon, corporate director of talent management at Lutheran SeniorLife, said the company is holding virtual recruitment events and focusing on safety.

“That's really important for our current employees and any new candidates we're looking for,” she said. “That's our No. 1 focus for the organization.”

Skrip said Concordia has offered additional pay to its employees during COVID-19, something that may limit the staffing issues it has experienced compared with its colleagues in the field.

“As an organization, we have offered substantial bonuses to staff working during the pandemic, including bonuses for those who are willing to cover an occasional extra shift and bonuses for front-line staff who are bravely serving patients or residents in an area where COVID-19 is present,” he said.

Beyond the tangible benefit of additional pay, some organizations think staff at these facilities being among the first to receive the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines will entice some job-seekers who may have been reluctant to apply to a long-term care home.

“We're hopeful, for a lot of reasons, this might help — the vaccine,” O'Donnell said. “If you come on as a new employee, you get a vaccine, which is a positive, and if there are any concerns in the marketplace for working at a place like this, we're hoping this will alleviate that.”

Vaccine

Early in the pandemic it became apparent nursing homes and similar facilities would bear the brunt of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality.

“The way that COVID is getting into the homes is through staff,” Yurek said. “It just is because people are living their lives outside the homes.”

When the facilities learned of tentative dates on which they would receive the vaccines, many launched educational and informational campaigns to promote the vaccine. Yurek said it's important to inoculate as many staff and residents as possible.

“Staff being vaccinated will stop them from further transferring it to other people,” she added.

Sunnyview held its first round of vaccination Jan. 2 and 3; “clinics have already begun” at Concordia at Cabot, although there are not yet concrete dates for Concordia at Cranberry or Concordia at the Orchards; Quality Life Services-Chicora will host its first clinic Jan. 16; and the Sarver site already had its first round.

“Things are going smoothly at our locations, and it's being well-received by both groups,” O'Donnell said. “Residents particularly were excited and ready to roll.”

At most of the companies, all employees are eligible to receive the vaccination in the current phase.

“Regardless of whether an employee works in nursing or any ancillary department, all of our team members who work in skilled nursing or personal care are eligible,” Skrip said.

Yurek said Quality Life Services is extending the offer to those who frequently go in and out of the homes too.

“We've included support staff who are regularly in our homes. For instance, we partner with an outside therapy company to provide occupational and speech therapy,” she said. “We've made the vaccine available to them.”

After bearing the brunt of the virus for most of the pandemic, the availability of the vaccines to nursing homes — although they aren't yet fully inoculated — gives staff and residents alike a glimmer of hope.