Shapiro admin. highlights commitment to long-term care facilities

MARTINSBURG, Pa. (WTAJ)– Members of the Shapiro administration visited The Village at Morrisons Cove Friday to highlight recent investments in long-term care facilities across the state.

The investments have been carried out by the State Health Department’s Long-Term Care Transformation Office. Acting Secretary of health Debra Bogen spoke on how grants given out by the office have been put to work.

“We put out 126 grants to long-term care facilities across the commonwealth to support infrastructure, workforce development, learning opportunities for that workforce, and infection prevention,” Bogen said.

Bogen says that the goal is for the administration to build closer relationships with facilities across the state. The funding isn’t meant to be for specific purposes, but rather for facilities to utilize it however they see fit.

“Each facility is able to choose the areas of need that they see most needing at the time,” Bogen said.

However, several facilities in our area and across the state are continuing to face a growing need.

“I think everyone is struggling with staffing,” Administrator at The Village at Morrisons Cove Bonnie Robison said. “Bringing nurses back to the call of nursing. Wanting to be a part of it again. We lost a tremendous number of good nurses and we’re just waiting for them to want to come back and be a part of long-term care again.”

Governor Josh Shapiro has proposed $10 million in funding for the state Long-Term Care Transformation Office in the 2024-2025 budget. That’s money that CEO of The Village at Morrisons Cove Corey Jones hopes to utilize to address their staffing issues if it is approved.

“We get referrals from other organizations and places that have run out of money because of their own financial needs,” Jones said. “We used to take everybody and anybody. We currently have a waiting list of people to get in our facility due to the challenge we are all facing with staffing right now.”

Jones says that they also plan to use the funding to upgrade visitation spaces, identify managers for training in key business-enhancing areas, improve their emergency preparedness, and disease infection prevention.