Amorem Consolidates Inpatient Units Due to Labor Pressures

The workforce shortage plaguing the health care sector is continuing to interfere with hospices’ ability to grow. Most recently, North Carolina-based provider Amorem has temporarily consolidated its inpatient care services to a single facility, temporarily closing its two other units.

Amorem was born through the merger of Burke Hospice & Palliative Care and Caldwell Hospice and Palliative Care during the summer of last year. The combined company rebranded as Amorem, with Caldwell CEO Cathy Swanson leading the new organization.

“Our organization is struggling, like all health organizations, with staffing. Whether it’s people leaving because of a vaccine mandate, or because they’re sick with COVID or they’re having to quarantine themselves, we are limited with our staffing,” Amorem Public Relations and Marketing Specialist Lisa Caviness told Hospice News. “To ensure that we’re still providing a service to our 12-county service area, we chose to consolidate our patient care unit effort to one.”

The two units that have suspended operations are located in the towns of Valdese and Lenoir. Patients in those facilities have been transferred to Forlines. The 12-bed Forlines inpatient facility is available to all patients who need such services in the organization’s service area, Amorem indicated.

Hospice utilization in North Carolina reached 49.2% in 2018, according to the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization. This is just shy of that year’s national average of 50.3%.

Amorem during 2021 made a capital investment to upgrade its Valdese campus, including the computer infrastructure and facility repairs, with other renovations planned. These updates will continue while the facility is closed.

This action is among the latest that signal the toll that the workforce shortage is having on nearly every hospice provider in the nation, as well as the larger health care sector. A number of providers have had to make changes, or even close, due to the labor pressures.

Worsening workforce shortages have been keeping hospice leaders awake at night for several years running. Rising turnover due to the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the crisis, and some hospice providers and health systems are starting to shut down their programs or sell off their operations because they cannot recruit or retain a sufficient number of employees.

An Iowa provider, simply called Hospice, closed its inpatient house as of Dec. 31, 2021, also citing staffing concerns. The organization will continue to provide care in patient homes, skilled nursing and assisted living facilities.

The Idaho-based Minidoka Memorial Hospital’s home health and hospice program was shuttered in September, also due to insufficient staffing. In Oregon, Grande Ronde Hospital and Clinics recently closed its hospice program due to labor shortages. The organization indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated industry-wide workforce issues, leading to the decision to close.

The Dare County Board of Commissioners in North Carolina earlier this year approved the sale of its local home health and hospice agency to BrightSpring Health Services for $2.9 million. Louisville, Ky.-based BrightSpring is a portfolio company of the global investment and private equity firm KKR & Co.

As for Amorem, the organization plans to reopen the two facilities as soon as possible.

“Once additional staff have been hired and trained, Amorem will reopen both facilities to once again provide three patient care units,” Caviness said. “The decision is only a result of staffing issues. As soon as we’re able to get staff hired we will open those doors back up.”