VA facility announces resident transfers due to labor shortages after COVID outbreak

After recovering from a massive coronavirus outbreak, the Washington Veterans Home at Retsil may now have to transfer residents to other VA facilities due to "critical staffing shortages."

The daughter of one resident told The Post Millennial, "They have 40 positions open." She added, "My dad lives there, and the staff has been amazing. They take great care of my dad and my heart goes out to the staff that is left holding the bag. These are not just old people, they are also wounded young veterans."

She added that she contacted the outlet "hoping that some light shining on this may help the Veterans Home get some employees. Maybe some people would choose taking care of our Veterans over another nursing or assistant job. They could use some help."

According to a letter signed by William McElya, an administrator for the facility, "We are recruiting to fill vacant positions, and also using contracted agency staff, but the shortage of direct care staff is being experienced nationally."

McElya added, "Because the care of our Veterans and their Families is our top priority, we have made the decision to temporarily transfer residents to other local facilities that have the ability to provide care at this time."

Residents will be transferred locally with VA contracted facilities to ensure no disruption in payment for residents, with transfers scheduled to occur on or around September 9.

According to McElya, "These transfers will allow us to temporarily vacate 40 beds and consolidate staff and continue to provide excellent care to our Veterans Home residents. We look forward to welcoming our residents’ home as soon as possible."

Last month, one person died and 32 people, including 24 residents and eight staff members, were diagnosed with COVID-19.

McElya wrote in a letter to Retsil residents following the death, "It is with profound sadness that we share the loss of one of our honored Veterans Home Residents, following their COVID-19 diagnosis. We extend our condolences to their family and friends and join them in mourning the loss of this hero."

209 of 215 residents at the veterans' facility are vaccinated, according to the state's veterans affairs department. However, as of mid-August, only 174 of the 334-person staff, is vaccinated.

All residents at Retsil are tested every three to seven days, according to the facility, and are "screened and monitored for symptoms regularly." Staff are tested each week and screened every day upon arrival to work.

According to the Kitsap County Public Health District, cases surged from 22 per 100,000 in a week in early July to 161 per 100,000 in the same time period.

On August 9, Democratic Governor Jay Inslee announced mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for state employees and workers in private health and long-term care settings, including state for contractors. Further mandates were announced on August 18, requiring vaccinations for those working in K-12, childcare, and higher education. All employees affected by the mandate are required to receive both doses of the coronavirus vaccination by October 18, meaning they will need to receive the first dose by September 6.

The mandates set forth by Governor Inslee are among the strictest in the country, providing no option for employees to get periodically tested in place of the vaccination. In fact, Governor Inslee's administration recently made it nearly impossible for employees to seek out religious or medical exemptions.

For example, if an employee has taken a prescribed medicine from a doctor, like an antacid, they would be disqualified from receiving a medical exemption.

The Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Inslee in an attempt to stop the COVID-19 vaccine mandate from going into effect. The forced vaccinations have also resulted in mass protests in the state as citizens from across the political spectrum, affected and unaffected by the mandate, worry about what precedent forced vaccinations could set for the future.

Thousands of protesters took to the Washington State Capitol on Saturday to advocate for medical freedom. The majority of the crowd included firefighters, health care workers, law enforcement officers, and teachers, all of whom are forced to get vaccinated. The common theme throughout the protest was that it should be an individual's right to choose what goes into their bodies, not the government’s.

Concern has been growing that the mandates will exacerbate the current labor shortage if employees who fall under the mandate, choose to quit rather than get vaccinated.

Jennifer Montgomery, of the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs, told The Post Millennial that the staffing shortage has not been due to the vaccine mandate. She said in a statement, "Our staffing shortage has been steady throughout the pandemic and is a national crisis in healthcare.  The impact of staff members out due to quarantine from exposure, symptom screening, or becoming ill can be felt across the facility. Ensuring our veterans receive the care they deserve is our highest priority."

She added, "We have been implementing our contingency plan to ensure our veterans and their families are fully cared for with the dignity and respect they deserve.  As the care of our Veterans and their families is our top priority, one of the considerations is bed management-relocating residents from their permanent rooms to vacant rooms with our facility. Our Home Administrator began bed management back in February 2021 leaving 20 rooms vacant of our 240 bed facility."

Montgomery continued, "Mid-August 2021, our Home Administrator continued with bed management due to current staffing shortages. Currently, our Washington Veterans Home is assessing the need to move several residents within the facility. This plan will leave 40 beds vacated, most of the bed vacancies have been created by not admitting new residents. At this time, we have paused any transfer of residents, because of ongoing bed management with the facility.  We are considering all options, the transferring our residents into the local community is an absolute last resort."

Others have called Inslee’s mandates "…too little, too late."

It was revealed in November 2020 that Washington Democrat Governor Jay Inslee’s Department of Social and Health Services issued directives to "transition" COVID positive patients to primarily to "alternative settings" with nursing homes being the "primary strategy" in order to "…create capacity for hospitals." Nursing homes that admitted the COVID positive patients were offered Medicaid funds.

Directives were dated almost three weeks after the virus outbreak in Washington State swept through a nursing home in Kirkland, killing the majority of residents. As a result of the spread, Washington was the initial epicenter of the virus in the US.

Patients and families could select an elderly care facility they were not previously a resident of even though a week before the letter was sent, Inslee was already issuing proclamations recognizing the need to protect people aged 60 and older from the virus.

"Alternative settings" could have been local hotels or other facilities that would not have posed a risk to other elderly residents. Inslee expanded the directives he made for nursing homes to long-term care facilities on March 26.

Documents obtained by The Post Millennial through a public disclosure request showed that the Department of Health knew of the risks posed by the virus to the elderly and instructed long term and elderly care facilities on mitigating risk to patients even before the request for the facilities to take infected patients was made.

According to the Seattle Times at the time, "nearly 200 nursing homes have experienced at least one outbreak, and some have had multiple, according to the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. Only a handful of buildings have gone without a single infection. In King County, 455 people connected to nursing homes have died, accounting for a third of the county’s total deaths."