[Partner content] In this first episode of A Spoonful of Sugar, experts explore staffing’s impact on skilled nursing operations. When admissions from hospitals and the community plummeted during COVID, nursing home occupancy crashed. Despite some gains in 2021, occupancy stood at 75% in September. A return to pre-pandemic rates is still far off, but the virus is no longer the only culprit. Projected financial losses are leading to staff cuts in settings already plagued by vaccine mandates and retention challenges. And fewer workers mean fewer beds. That’s because the loss of direct care workers reduces the number of residents a facility can safely admit without having quality levels suffer. In fact, nearly 60% of nursing homes are limiting new admissions due to shortages. This is the first in a year-long series of podcasts sponsored by PharMerica.