PETOSKEY — For the first time in several years, the Emmet County Board of Commissioners heard an annual report from the Bay Bluffs medical care facility during their meeting on March 14.
Lisa Ashley, administrator at Bay Bluffs in Harbor Springs, provided an overview of the facility, recent renovations and how COVID-19 impacted their work.
“Our road to recovery, I liken it to being a turtle, ‘slow and steady wins the race,’” Ashley said.
Bay Bluffs first opened in April of 1966. Ashley said they “serve as the safety net for the most vulnerable medically and financially in our county.”
“Our mission is to provide exceptional care with compassion and dignity,” she said.
Ashley said the last major renovation on the building was done in 2004 when the Lilac and Trillium neighborhoods were added to the building. Voters approved a millage in 2021 that will provide Bay Bluffs with $7.6 million for improvements over the course of 10 years. The funding has led to several recent updates, with more on the way.
More: Long-sought Bay Bluffs millage proposal passes in Emmet County
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“The last four years, however, we have been battling what has probably been one of the most, I think, incredible experiences that any of us who have had a career in health care have ever lived through,” Ashley said. “We had a plan. We had a great strategic plan and in the first quarter of 2020 we were on our way to achieving the goals, both financially and with our census, to get us to the point where we are financially viable and self-sustaining. And the pandemic hit, and we have struggled with that mightily and we have overcome significantly.”
The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the way that nursing homes operate. Ashley said they needed to enact more than 500 rule changes required by the state and federal government, many of which are still in effect.
“I am so proud of the team at Bay Bluffs,” Ashley said. “When it comes to how we have been able to achieve and maintain our quality, goals and at the same time trying to prevent significant outbreak of COVID-19 in our building.”
In the last four years, Ashley said they have only had 47 resident cases of COVID-19, and two deaths associated with the disease. There have been 162 staff member cases.
“If you recall, at the end of February 2020 and the beginning of March 2020, there were nursing homes in the state of Washington that were devastated and decimated by COVID-19,” she said. “That was pretty terrifying for us trying to prepare for what was coming our way.”
Ashley also noted that between COVID-19, influenza and RSV, there is still a risk to their resident population.
“We are still on heightened alert today,” she said. “But we know so much more than we did four years ago. We have so many more opportunities to protect our residents and we are in a better place to be able to do that.”
Ashley described 2023 as a “year of recovery” for the facility.
“We have, still today, a waitlist of over 60 individuals needing to and wanting to be in our facility and needing our care,” she said.
They had 128 admissions total for the year and 129 discharges.
“We were a very, very busy team of people,” Ashley said. “We had a total of 70 beds available in 2023, so that means we turned over those beds not quite twice.”
The facility has 120 state licensed and federally certified beds, but around 45-50 of those have been in a holding pattern for the last few years as there has not been enough staff to safely admit more patients to occupy those beds.
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A worker shortage in the health care field has been especially impactful for nursing homes. Ashley provided several statistics to illustrate the need, noting that nursing homes still need 189,500 workers to return to pre-pandemic levels. However, she also celebrated the fact that Bay Bluffs has an 80 percent retention rate among their staff.
Looking ahead to 2024, Ashley said they are placing an emphasis on recruitment and retention.
“The key strategy for us was workforce development. If we do not have a stable workforce, we cannot care for more people in our building. If we cannot care for more people in our building, we don’t have the revenue to continue. It’s an unfortunate cyclical situation,” she said. “We also identified that we need to stay focused on quality, that we’re not going to sacrifice what our residents need and deserve as far as their care goes, because that’s what our community expects of us.”
They are also planning several more infrastructure update projects. In 2024, anticipated projects include plumbing, painting, HVAC updates and more.
Ashley said they will also bring more of the unavailable beds back online.
“Our goal is by the first part of August, at which point we will have more than 80 beds available for residents of Emmet and surrounding counties to receive care,” she said. “We will be staffed and ready for them as well.”
For more information about Bay Bluffs, visit baybluffs.org.
— Contact Jillian Fellows at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Bay Bluffs nursing home on the ‘road to recovery’ in Emmet County
Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
