Rachel, Dana, Ann and Hayley toured the state last week to learn first-hand what is happening around the membership. Each site featured great conversation and everyone walked away with new information. Here is a recap of the discussion:
Rachel provided a wrap-up of the 2022 Legislative Session. Overall it was a great win for LeadingAge Kansas members in terms of reimbursement. We will still continue to work hard on these issues and others in 2023. Specifically, she went over our First Adjournment Report and the Veto Session Report. There was also discussion about our 2022 election year activities: Election Year Toolkit, Attorney General Candidate Forum on Health Care, and State Candidate Listening Tour in September. More details to come on these.
Hayley led a conversation on education and what the needs were from the membership. It was no surprise that anything related to workforce, staffing and educating new staff were at the top of minds right now. She also provided a list of upcoming education for members to put on their calendars. If you want to weigh in on education topics, to be part of the Education Planning Committee or provide the name of an excellent speaker you wish we would bring in, please contact Hayley Spicer at hayley@leadingagekansas.org.
Ann provided an overview of Value First, what it is, they types of programs that are saving members money right now and previewed the program “Perks at Work”. It’s yet another option for you to provide value to your staff at no cost or obligation to you. If you are interested in conducting a cost study to see where you could save money (even if you are already purchasing through Value First), contact Ann Castro at ann@leadingagekansas.org .
Dana announced plans for LeadingAge Kansas to find new ways to raise the image of our field and highlight the workforce struggles we are experiencing. She led a discussion about workforce and asked the following questions:
- What are you currently doing to recruit new employees
- Do you have a waiting list for residents because you can’t find enough employees? How long is the list? Have you shut down wings of your building or decertified beds as a result?
- Tell us about the employees that are currently working for you. How are they/you doing?
- What is the timeframe of an average employee. We broke this down into specific departments in some locations.
- Tell us about current agency costs and if you are using agency?
- Can you host CNA classes in your building?
- If only one thing could change in the next year to ease your workforce burden, what would that be?
If you would like to weigh in on the questions, feel free to email your answers to Dana Weaver at dana@leadingagekansas.org
We will take the above conversation and create a multi-media situation report to present during our very first Virtual Regional Candidate Listening Tour to be held in September 2022. All candidates running for legislative offices around the state will be invited along with you, our members. We hope to present the workforce situation report, hear from candidates about their platforms and engage in dialogue to raise awareness about what our members are experiencing. The Multi-Media Report will outline our crisis points and include:
- Soundbites from members and their employees who live it every day
- Data outlining the issue that hasn’t been presented before
- Images and faces of the crisis
- What each stakeholder group can do to affect change in the process
- Why we need to be working together in a multi-partner approach and not point fingers at each other as the problem
