What the New CMS Staff Turnover Data Means for Nursing Homes

With more nursing professionals seeking new ways to work and a deeper understanding of how things like COVID and weekend work preferences impact the ability to maintain proper staffing levels, one thing is abundantly clear – nursing homes will have to find ways beyond their full-time staff to maintain their standing with CMS. About half of all nursing homes have an average turnover between 40% and 60%. States with higher nursing staff turnover generally have higher quit rates across all industries as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Understaffed facilities, characterized by a lower number of adjusted staffing hours per resident per day, tend to have higher turnover rates than facilities with better staffing ratios. While it’s true that staffing levels play an important role in preventing burnout among nursing professionals, it’s also possible that higher turnover leads to less desirable staffing levels. Based on this weekend relaxation score, the median RN turnover rate among the top and bottom quintile of nursing homes differ by a full 20 percentage points! CMS communicates the quality of nursing homes through several star ratings associated with specific dimensions (staffing, health outcomes, etc.), as well as an overall star rating. As of Feb 2022, nursing staff turnover does not directly factor into star ratings, but will later this year.