Petersburg hospital board weighs buying housing to address staffing gaps

Petersburg Medical Center may enter the housing market to ease a constraint on hiring staff. Administrator Phil Hofstetter asked the hospital board at its July meeting to formally acknowledge housing as a workforce constraint and to weigh buying, building, or partnering on housing for staff. The board took no financial action.

Hofstetter laid out three paths: pursuing housing grants, partnering with the Petersburg Borough to develop housing on the upper lot, and purchasing existing homes in town.

"We should really evaluate some potential solutions and maybe just, you know, put on the record at least at some point that we should be looking either in town for potential housing," Hofstetter said. He told the board that a legal review found PMC may acquire property or housing in support of its workforce initiative. "I did have a legal review completed that we are allowed to, you know, obtain property or housing and follow this line as it supports our workforce initiative going forward," he said.

Hofstetter said local recruitment works well, but few people from outside Petersburg move to town, and housing remains an issue for those who do.

The hospital is filling the gap with contract labor. Board member Cindy Ecklund reported PMC recently filled a new apartment unit and expects to fill it again next month. Travelers continue coming and going, and some staff use intermittent housing. Openings remain for an MRI technologist, rehab therapists, nurses and certified nursing assistants. The average traveler stay is 13 weeks, Ecklund said, and stays are otherwise unpredictable. Staff said they were still looking at a property that had been for sale, though no property has been selected.

The reliance on rentals is not new. Minutes from the board's May 7 meeting show PMC "continues to utilize 22 local rentals in Petersburg to house traveling staff across departments," and that collaboration with the borough on funding options would continue.

The housing discussion stays on the agenda as old business, with no dollar figure attached and no project selected.