On Oct. 26, the Department of Health and Human Services and Oceana County Medical Care Facility (OCMCF) board met with OCMCF administration for their monthly meeting. There, they were presented an annual turnover report, supplemented by a decade of staffing data. Alongside this annual report, OCMCF Administrator Sally Choponis described it as a “review of our employee turnover trends, benchmarking performance against industry standards.”
The 2026 fiscal year saw an employee turnover rate of 31.13%, the second year in the past 10 wherein turnover reached over 30%, the last time being 2019. This is compared to the year’s average turnover rate throughout the state of Michigan, with a 44% turnover for skilled nursing facilities and 53.1% for nursing homes. For OCMCF, the 10-year average has seen a turnover rate of 25.95%.
For Choponis, the summary of their key findings is that the facility “maintained turnover below recorded state averages every year since tracking began,” and is “demonstrating organizational resilience, with rates consistently remaining within a relatively narrow range over the past decade.” Despite 2026 being the highest turnover rate in the past 10 years, she maintains that “there’s no sustained upward trend.”
The facility’s Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement plan hopes to reduce the turnover to 28% or below for 2027, implementing new retention strategies and strengthening those in place. Recruitment has been another key focus of OCMCF administration, especially as the facility continues to spend more on contract nurses to supplement staffing shortages.
One of the strategies implemented to keep and recruit employees is that of a 12-hour shift model, which is commonplace in the medical field, particularly in hospitals and acute care. Administrative staff contend that the shift change will be beneficial to direct care workers and will promote retention, allowing for more days off for rest and less utilization of Earned Sick Time Act mandates. Choponis particularly hopes to see the shift change give RNs and CNAs “a better work-life balance,” which she says has “been a goal of mine right since the beginning.”
As of the meeting, administrative staff had announced to the two unions representing OCMCF employees that the effective date of the shift change is Nov. 22. They were also “in communication” with the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Healthcare Michigan unit, representing CNAs and service workers, as representatives had further questions upon their notification.
The shift change has not gone without controversy and is working hand-in-hand with employee concerns over the year’s turnover and administrative decision-making. One public comment at the October meeting echoed criticism voiced at the previous meeting, with a former OCMCF employee Jack Wood noting the “years of valuable experience [and] expertise that’s been lost” in department leadership that have departed the facility in the past six months. Wood also said that “the current working environment, many feel, is hostile, stressful, constantly short-staffed, and difficult to do their job.”
Four days following the meeting, on Oct. 30, a press release was published to the SEIU Healthcare website announcing that the Union is “demanding that Oceana County Medical Care Facility management halt its plan to eliminate eight-hour certified nursing assistant (CNA) shifts and force workers into 12-hour schedules under threat of termination, an action that violates the workers’ collective bargaining agreement.” Furthermore, SEIU claims that the requirement to switch to a 12-hour shift and the elimination of part-time positions violates items of the agreed upon union contract.
A statement released by Choponis on Nov. 2 responds to the SEIU claims.
“Contrary to SEIU’s press release, that Union has been pressing the Facility to transition to 12-hour shifts for the past several months now and doing so entirely within the authorization granted the Facility under the existing contract. Indeed, the parties’ contract was updated to specifically allow for the utilization of 12-hour shifts to address staffing concerns following the Covid pandemic. However, the Facility is currently working with both the unions representing its staff to pursue staffing options that ensure the best care possible for the residents we serve. In that regard, while we were disappointed in SEIU's recent communications, we ultimately know all our staff only want [what’s] best for our residents.”
