Lack of staff freezes admissions to state veterans home in Scottsbluff

  BY: PAUL HAMMEL

LINCOLN — Staffing shortages continue to challenge Nebraska’s veterans homes, with one in Scottsbluff freezing new admissions until more nurses and aides can be hired, state legislators were told Tuesday.

But officials with the Nebraska Department of Veterans Affairs said recent increases in salary and job applications give them hope that the use of out-of-state “traveling” nurses to fill staff vacancies can soon end at the Western Nebraska Veterans Home and the state’s other three facilities.

“We have found that our current pay structure is competitive, and we are slowly staffing up. We just need more Nebraskans now,” John Hilgert, state veterans affairs director, told the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee.

273 vacancies as of Jan. 1

As of Jan. 1, the veterans agency reported 273 job vacancies of all types, of which more than 200 were for staff care technicians or nurses.

The lack of staff forced a halt to new admissions at the Scottsbluff facility, which has a capacity of 103 residents but currently houses 68.

The agency is also slowing down new admissions to its Central Nebraska Veterans Home in Kearney, Hilgert said, to make sure the facility has adequate staff.

Holden Armstrong, a spokesman for the department, said staffing levels are more near normal at vets homes at Bellevue and Norfolk, where health care workers are more numerous.

State Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard, whose district covers most of Nebraska Panhandle, led the questioning about staff at the Scottsbluff facility. Elmwood Sen. Robert Clements also asked if recent pay raises have helped and was told they have.

Armstrong said that late in 2021, wages were raised 20% for housekeeping, maintenance and food service workers and 30% for clinical staff, plus a $3 per hour differential for all veterans homes.

The Scottsbluff facility, he said has vacancies for five full-time and 23 part-time CNAs, one full-time and three part-time nurse supervisors, and one full-time and three part-time LPNs.

Night shifts have been the hardest to fill, he said, but the facility has “had some luck” in hiring recently after stepping up recruitment efforts. A class to train new CNAs was also full this month, Armstrong said.

He added that another barrier to filling all the beds in veterans homes is a requirement that at least 75% of them are filled by veterans. Spouses and Gold Star parents are allowed to fill the rest.

Senator questions steep increases

State Sen. Bruce Bostelman of Brainard testified during the hearing that his elderly father was hit with a steep increase in the price of living at the Kearney facility.

His father, the senator said, is paying about $800 more a month — $4,730 a month — than he did two years ago, which is difficult to afford on a fixed income.

“Should we be doing more for veterans?” Bostelman asked the committee.

The Appropriations Committee took no action on the funding requests by the Veterans Affairs Department after Tuesday’s hearing.