TIFFIN, Ohio — Gabe Stoll has worked in the health care industry for more than a decade. He's spent almost half that time working at St. Francis Senior Ministries in Tiffin.
A few years ago, Stoll and other leaders saw the facility's falling revenues, partly brought on by inflation, and had to make the tough decision to downsize the number of bed in the facilities.
"It's never easy," Stoll said. "The worst thing you have to do is tell a person they may have to move out of their home."
Stoll explained another reason for the decline in revenues is staffing shortages, saying the number of full-time staff is on the decline. As a result, the facility has had to contract more outside agencies to keep things running.
"With the thought of bringing our overall beds down, we can decrease the use of that agency-contracted staff," he said.
St. Francis currently has 88 beds. After Dec. 1, however, that number will drop to 54, an approximately 38% decrease. Stoll said 20 people will have to be relocated.
"We do have some planned discharges coming up, which would make that number go down [to about 15 relocations]," Stoll said.
St. Francis's staff is already beginning the process of finding new homes for the people being moved.
"We will be working with residents and their families over the next month to identify people who may need a transition to another facility in the area," Stoll said.
Stoll hopes the ministry can get back to a point where revenues are up, and they can maintain a high level of care for the seniors here.
"I would say that our goal here is to be able to reinvest in to our facility and make this a better place for our residents," Stoll said.
This downsize is in addition to St. Francis's pandemic-related downsize, when the facility went from 132 beds to today's number of 88.
MORE LOCAL HEADLINES FROM WTOL 11