Ohio Nursing Home Workers Say They’re Pushed Past Their Limit

Rackell Ellis, Michelle Pirigyi and Michelle Nikita of SEIU 1199 outside Chardon Healthcare Center. Credit: Maria Elena Scott

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1199 nursing home workers are calling on Gov. Mike DeWine to address what they say is a crisis.

“I simply don’t have enough hours in the day to do what I’m supposed to do. I’m routinely picking up duties of the aides and people get their showers and answering call lights because there just isn’t anybody physically in the building to do it,” said caregiver Michelle Nikita. “It’s like putting out little fires all night long. I don’t have time to spend with my patients, the quality time that they deserve, and sometimes we’re all that they have.”

Although DeWine established the Nursing Home Quality and Accountability Task Force, nursing home workers say their voices aren’t being heard. The task force is staffed with policy experts, advocates and leaders of governmental departments and hears from state regulators, administrators and relatives of those in nursing homes.

“Governor DeWine, his task force is blind to what everybody’s going through,” Nikita said. “And it boggles my mind why he doesn’t have people actually in the thick of it on his task force to give our opinions because we can enlighten him, that’s for sure…he doesn’t want to hear the truth. I mean, that’s it in a nutshell, he doesn’t want to hear it from the people who are actually working 16-hour days.

Although Chardon Healthcare Center is run by CommuniCare, SEIU workers say that the problems caused by unsafe staffing ratios are industry-wide. Ohio’s nursing home industry performs poorly compared to other states and was ranked 39th in the country by Medicare.

With low wages, long hours and chronic understaffing, some in the nursing home industry are pursuing other careers.

“Why would anyone want to work as an aide in a nursing home or in the hospital or any kind of health care facility when they can make a higher wage doing something else? It’s really a shame,” Nikita said. “Most of us who do this do it because it’s in our hearts and it’s what our callings are. I’ve been [at Chardon Healthcare Center] for seven years and the only reason I don’t leave is because I’m worried about what’s going to happen to people if I’m not here.”

According to the American Council on Aging, a private room in an Ohio nursing home costs $293 daily and $106,763 annually on average. Despite these costs, workers say residents aren’t getting adequate care.

“We in nursing homes are real people working everyday to fix a broken system. We just can’t do it anymore,” said Nikita. “Our most vulnerable community members pay a lot of money to be in homes like this, and they deserve our care and attention.”

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