Staff Shortages Choking U.S. Health Care System – By Steven Ross Johnson (US News) / July 28, 2022
A growing shortage of health care workers is being called the nation’s top patient safety concern.
As the pandemic stretches on with no clear end in sight, one of the biggest unanswered questions is what this experience has meant, and ultimately will mean, for those who’ve been on the front lines throughout – the nation’s health care workforce – and the patients they serve.
An estimated 1.5 million health care jobs were lost in the first two months of COVID-19 as the country raced to curb the novel coronavirus by temporarily closing clinics and restricting non-emergency services at U.S. hospitals. Though many of those jobs have since returned, health care employment remains below pre-pandemic levels, with the number of workers down by 1.1%, or 176,000, compared to February 2020, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Yet the need for health care workers has never been greater. Staffing shortages are now the nation’s top patient safety concern, forcing Americans to endure longer wait times when seeking care “even in life-threatening emergencies,” or to be turned away entirely, according to ECRI, a nonprofit patient safety organization.
In a letter sent in March to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the American Hospital Association called the workforce shortage hospitals were experiencing a “national emergency,” projecting the overall shortage of nurses to reach 1.1 million by the end of the year. And it’s not just nurses: Professionals from medical lab workers to paramedics are in short supply.
