Patients with nowhere else to go are filling up Vermont hospitals amid nursing home shortages
Vermont Public
Health care officials told lawmakers Wednesday that a shortage of nursing home beds has forced hospitals to become residential care providers for patients who have nowhere else to go.
Dr. Stephen Leffler, the chief operating officer at University of Vermont Medical Center, said his hospital is currently boarding 68 patients who are ready for discharge. Lack of placement options for those patients, he said, is delaying access to care for people with serious medical needs.
“A long-term boarder on one of our medical floors may not seem like a big deal, we have 430 beds,” Leffler said. “But if every bed is full, where is that patient going to go?”