The Minnesota House of Representatives in March passed a bill that would allocate $1.0 million to create an emergency temporary staffing pool for long-term care and other facilities. The bill would also allow out-of-state medical professionals to provide services in Minnesota under out-of-state credentials, according to a report on the legislation.

A long-term care facility could seek one-time assistance from the pool for up to 21 days, but only after it has used all resources available to obtain temporary staff and still can’t meet its needs.

“Our work to defeat Covid-19 is headed in the right direction, but we still have a crisis remaining that frankly existed well before the pandemic,” said state Rep. Jen Schultz, who authored the bill.

“Residents in our nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and group homes have unacceptable staffing levels, putting them at risk of not receiving the level of care they deserve,” Schultz continued. “A temporary pool will help us target staffing resources to facilities with the most urgent needs to protect residents.”

The bill returns to the Senate, which had approved a prior version in February.