State officials from three agencies say South Dakota faces challenges when it comes to nursing home and assisted living care. On July 12 the Regulation of Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Beds Interim Committee met in Pierre. Members discussed plans to address challenges like infrastructure improvement, staff shortages, and budget constraints.
The Regulation of Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Beds Interim Committee met July 12 in Pierre.
Get people home. That’s the goal of the South Dakota Department of Health and Department of Social Services in an effort to try to lessen nursing and assisted living home use.
State officials say data from a study in 2008shows that while nursing home use has decreased, assisted living use has increased, and home and community services haven’t expanded at all.
Marilyn Kinsman is with the Department of Social Services. She says some options to increase home care services include expanding caregiver training and providing day habilitation.
“And that’s an area that we really need to work on, getting people so they can stay at home. It’s more cost effective, it’s a lesser restrictive place where people can be. People want to be home and in their communities and we want to see them there too but like I said we haven’t really seen much of a shift in that area so we’re going to be working in that regard,” says Kinsman.
Secretary of Health Kim Malsam-Rysdon says that providing different levels of care is important.
“Especially larger communities that have more of a population of folks that need some level of long term care where they’re developing kind of continuum care communities so that people have access to a variety of types of care it’s not just a nursing home or just an assisted living, it’s residential living, it’s you know a townhome on a campus where there’s just some minor housekeeping that the person needs,” says Malsam-Rysdon.
Officials say the state doesn’t face a shortage of nursing home beds now, but it could in the future.
Kim Malsam-Rysdon says in places like Rapid City, Sioux Falls, tribal communities, and rural areas could see nursing home bed shortages in the coming years.
“Will our supply of nursing home beds today, be adequate to meet the need in the future? Yes, if we can get the beds to the right places,” says Kim Malsam-Rysdon.
Malsam-Rysdon says there is a plan to redistribute resources from closed facilities to locations in need.
The committee reconvenes on August 23 in Pierre to discuss more on the issues. It plans to possibly tour some nursing or assisted living facilities as well. Committee members may propose legislation for the 2017 session based on what they learn this summer.