CT ranks 33rd in US for nursing home staffing levels. State lawmaker calls it ‘shameful.’

Hartford Courant – Tuesday, July 21, 2026
By Livi Stanford

Connecticut is ranked in the bottom third of the nation for nursing home staffing levels, according to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data compiled by the Long Term Care Community Coalition.

While the state is on par with the national average of 3 hours and 45 minutes of direct care per resident per day, advocates at the nonprofit Long Term Care Coalition say that number is “terrible and insufficient,” and that Connecticut finds itself 33rd in the nation in nursing home staffing levels because as a wealthy state, similar to New York and New Jersey, it is more attractive to for-profit operators.

By comparison, Alaska, which is ranked first in the nation for nursing home staffing levels provides 5.8 hours of direct care per resident per day, according to data from the coalition.

In Connecticut, nursing homes are required by law to provide a minimum of 3.0 hours of direct care per resident per day, though many exceed that.

In tandem with the state’s wealth attracting for-profit operators, lawmakers and advocates name the prevalence of private equity ownership in nursing homes as another factor for lower staffing levels.

The Long Term Care Community Coalition found that Connecticut is 23.9% below the expected nursing home staffing levels, a number based on nursing home residents’ clinical needs as reported by nursing homes in the state. Based on that data, Connecticut is expected to have 4.91 hours of direct care per resident per day.

State Sen. Saud Anwar, co-chair of the Public Health Committee, and a physician said he was “deeply disappointed and outraged by the quiet tragedy unfolding our nursing homes” and that being ranked 33rd is “shameful.”

“Nearly 80% of our facilities fail to meet the bare minimum for safe staffing, meaning that if four out of five airplanes were unsafe we would ground the fleet immediately,” he said. “Yet we look the other way while our parents and grandparents languish in homes that are running a 24% care deficit. This is a direct assault on human dignity that forces vulnerable seniors to wait hours to use the restroom, lie in soiled sheets, and miss vital medications because a depleted workforce is stretched to the breaking point.”

Anwar said it is critical that the state “provide the Department of Public Health with the robust resources required to enforce strict accountability, and we must commit to a broader, statewide implementation plan to permanently rebuild this broken system before we lose any more lives.”
‘There’s money in the game’

Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, said that states like New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are attractive to private equity operators because “there’s money in the game and they are fairly densely populated.”

He said the national average for nursing home staffing levels “is terrible.”

“Ninety percent of nursing homes are understaffed,” he said.

Matt Barrett, president and CEO of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities and Connecticut Center for Assisted Living, disputed the ranking.

He said the data shows that Connecticut nursing homes are on par with the national average.

“DPH regulators rarely find nursing homes providing staffing below state minimums because they are overwhelmingly in compliance with those requirements,” he said. “Federal requirements further require nursing homes to staff to the level of care required of the residents without regard to minimums and Connecticut nursing homes are also meeting these strict rules.”

Barrett has said that availability of quality nursing home staff is a major issue and that his nursing home members “are concerned that there will not be sufficient staffing to meet the growing demand for skilled nursing care on the immediate horizon.”
30 nursing homes owned by nonprofits

The Courant obtained a list of the nursing homes in the state showing that the majority of the state’s 233 nursing homes are owned by corporations or limited liability companies. The list shows only 30 are owned by nonprofits.

Lawmakers said they are investigating the percentage of nursing homes in the state that are owned by private equity. They said they are hopeful that new legislation requiring private equity firms that own nursing homes to provide the state with thorough financial details will aid in those efforts.

Rep. Jane Garibay, a Windsor Democrat and co-chair of the Aging Committee, said in response to the ranking that the state has to do better.

“We can only accomplish better care for our elderly if we all work together so our population can age with dignity and avoid avoidable deaths,” she said. “They have to increase staffing. They have to do better training. They have to have better oversight. And when making decisions it can’t just be the bottom line of the money. Money is important because you have to pay your employees. But it also has to be about is the food we are feeding our elderly appropriate? Are they safe? Are they getting up every couple of hours? Because there are people that lay in bed all day.”

Garibay said when a nursing home is not properly staffed it “hurts the employees, the residents and in the end it’s going to hurt the business.”

Some Connecticut nursing homes are facing challenges, Garibay said, with not enough of the money put into nursing homes going back into the care.

“They are not getting their physical therapy,” she said. “They may not eat. I’ve seen where (residents) are not eating their meals but no one is there to be able to go in and help them.”

Sen. Jan Hochadel, a Meriden Democrat and co-chair of the Aging Committee, said staffing is a concern in facilities owned by private equity firms.

“When private equity owns a facility, the money often gets pulled out of the nursing home instead of going toward the people working there, so staff don’t feel valued and nobody wants to stay in a job like that,” she said. “I’ve also seen facilities where staff are treated well, and those places don’t have the same staffing problems. How you treat your workers determines whether you can keep them.”

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