Self-reported resilience of North Carolina long-term care organizations and public health agencies in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the self-reported resilience of North Carolina long-term care (LTC) and public health organizations while in the midst of a pandemic. Further, we correlate resilience with several organizational attributes for some insight into the types of organizations that are more resilient. Through collaboration with four LTC professional associations in North Carolina, the Benchmark Resilience Tool-13 (BRT-13) survey was disseminated to LTC leaders across North Carolina, and emailed to Public Health leaders during April 2021. The 13 survey items were divided into adaptive capacity and planning factors. Analysis of variance was used to determine whether organizational factors contributed to resiliency. A total of 142 completed surveys were received, 20 from assisted living administrators, 67 nursing home administrators, 14 from continuing care retirement community leaders, and 41 from public health officials. Average resilience, adaptive capacity, and planning were measured and analyzed against type of facility, RUCA area designation, owner type, level of debt, level of profitability, and employee satisfaction. Average resilience scores were 3.96 (SD = 0.774) for public health, 4.19 (SD = 0.725) for nursing homes, 4.22 (SD = 0.509) for assisted living, and 4.46 (SD = 0.407) for continuing care retirement communities. Results show a significant trend of higher employee satisfaction related to higher adaptive capacity, planning, and overall resilience. A key to organizational resilience in the pandemic was how well an organization cared for their employees. We must prepare before a crisis by being attentive to employee satisfaction and not lose track of employee satisfaction during the crisis. Public health agencies and LTC organizations who maintain high employee satisfaction will be more resilient.