Issues Impacting the Long-Term Direct Care Workforce

To: Residential care facilities (skilled nursing facilities, assisted living residences, group homes, intermediate care facilities) From: Peter Myers, Residential Care Strike Team Branch Chief, CDPHE Hayley Gleason, Division Director, Strategic Outcomes, Office of Community Living, HCPF Staffing Shortage The HFEMSD Residential Care Strike Team is working with the inter-agency Staff Shortage Fusion Center (SSFC) to support residential care facilities with critical staffing shortages directly related to COVID-19. The SSFC receives and prioritizes staffing requests from residential health care providers and to provide staffing solutions for facilities in critical need from various resource sources.  To access staffing shortage resources, the Residential Care Strike Team strongly encourages facilities to report staffing needs into EMResource on a daily basis, as is required by Public Health Order 20-20. Staffing Shortage Resources: The Colorado Staffing Collaborative - A collaboration with Healthcare Workforce Logistics (HWL) and third-party staffing agencies that access a national pool of contracted staff and a technology platform to recruit, hire, and manage contracted staff for facilities. The on-boarding process takes approximately 1-2 weeks and contracts are generally filled for 4-8 week assignments. Contact Steven Rachmaciej at srachmaciej@hwlmsp.com for more information. The Colorado National Guard - Members of the National Guard are being deployed to facilities across the state to provide non-medical support to help facilities bridge a short-term staffing gap while the facility secures adequate staff. The National Guardsmen/women can support facilities in a variety of ways including duties like testing/screening, administrative support, and culinary and housekeeping assistance. They are intended to allow facility staff more capacity to provide direct resident care.  Colorado Volunteer Mobilizer - A state-wide pool of active volunteers, including general volunteers and skilled medical professionals. Volunteer organizations include the Medical Reserve Corps and Community Emergency Response Teams. State-contracted Staff - A pool of clinical staff that the State can deploy regionally. To request staff support, submit an INTAKE REQUEST FORM for SSFC review. As staffing needs change or become more critical, please submit a new request. Resource allocation is determined based on critical staffing shortages that a) threaten the health and safety of residents or b) necessitate the need to transport residents to another facility in the next 48-72 hours. Please direct questions to residentialcarestriketeam@state.co.us or Samantha.Weiss@state.co.us and Erin.Dupuis@state.co.us.