If successful, Walker said they can be adapted to other facilities, too.Īnother reason turnover in the care industry is high is that often times people take a nursing job without fully understanding the role, Walker said. Whether it would be on-site or not is still unclear.īoth the transportation and housing initiatives are pilot programs for Elderwood at Lake Placid. Though still in the planning stages, Walker added that Elderwood is looking into getting dormitory-style housing for some of its employees. We just booked eight rooms in that snowstorm recently.” “That’s really for staff that’s coming from Potsdam, or the person happens to work a double or the weather is bad. “We’ve carved out rooms available to the staff 24 hours a day,” Walker said. To help accommodate those traveling long distances, Elderwood rents out rooms at two hotels: the Ledge Rock at Whiteface in Wilmington and the Rodeway Inn in Lake Placid. Lake Placid also has a higher cost of living than other areas in Essex and Franklin counties. Walker said he’d like to get the shuttle up and running by the start of the summer. The nursing home is trying to start its own shuttle service that would pick up and drop off workers who don’t have a car in Plattsburgh and Malone, possibly stopping at Dunkin’ for donuts and coffee, which the staff wouldn’t have to pay for. The rest come from places such as Saranac Lake, Jay, AuSable Forks, Peru, Plattsburgh and Tupper Lake, according to Walker. Only a handful of Elderwood employees live in the village of Lake Placid.

“I strongly believe that an environment is equally as important,” he said.

However, Walker said keeping staff equates to more than just better wages. In 2018, certified nursing assistants made $11.95 and licensed practical nurses made $17 at the time of hire. Walker said the goal is to get that number up to 150 with 83 nurses.Įlderwood used to have turnover rates closer to the industry standard, but in the last six months, Walker said the facility has been able to decrease the turnover for new employees to 18 percent.īoth the current employees’ wages and base pays have increased, Walker said. He said the industry standard is to lose 47 percent of all new nurses within their first 90 days of employment.Įlderwood currently has 134 full-time employees on staff. In an interview Thursday, Walker said, in general, nursing homes across the country have a high turnover for its employees. “The problem is we’re competing with tourism, resorts and other opportunities that allow staff to get cash basically without having to pay taxes,” Walker said in April, referring to waiters’ and bartenders’ tips. One of Elderwood’s biggest competitors in Lake Placid is the hospitality industry. Caring for the elderly is hard work, the pay for nurses and nursing assistants wasn’t competitive, and in Lake Placid’s case, the workers were coming from places like Plattsburgh, Malone and Potsdam, areas all more than an hour away. The Uihlein facility offers independent living, assisted living, physical rehabilitation and long-term care to the elderly.Įlderwood at Lake Placid representatives admitted in April 2018 that it’s difficult to retain staff in the assisted living industry. The Lake Placid nursing home has been a staple of this community for nearly 50 years and is part of the growing Elderwood network of medical facilities in the Northeast, which currently runs facilities in North Creek, Ticonderoga and Burlington, Vermont. “So we here at the facility really took a deep dive into what we can do, thinking outside the box.”

“The North Country is challenged from a staffing, recruitment and retention standpoint for multiple entities, not only health care,” said Mark Walker, Elderwood regional director of operation.

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