Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hospital and outpatient clinician workforce: challenges and policy responses
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- ASPE issue brief
- Contributor(s):
- United States. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Office of Health Policy, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, D.C. : Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Office of Health Policy, May 3, 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- COVID-19 Health Workforce Burnout, Professional -- prevention & control Health Workforce -- trends United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- The COVID-19 pandemic has put extreme stress on the health care workforce in the United States, leading to workforce shortages as well as increased health care worker burnout, exhaustion, and trauma. These pandemic-related challenges have taken place in a context of significant pre-existing workforce shortages and maldistribution, as well as in a workforce where burnout, stress, and mental health problems (including an ongoing risk of post-traumatic stress disorder) were already significant problems. Many health care workers who were not directly caring for COVID-19 patients faced being furloughed or having their hours reduced, particularly early in the pandemic. In May 2020, approximately 15 percent of hospital workers reported being unable to work at some time in the past 4 weeks because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic, compared to 23 percent of non-hospital health care workers. These numbers declined to 1-2 percent by the end of 2020. Total employment in the health care industry declined during the early months of the pandemic but has gradually recovered since summer 2020. The relative decline in employment was substantially larger for ambulatory care employees compared to hospital employees. Many hospitals have reported critical staffing shortages over the course of the pandemic, particularly when case numbers were high. During the Omicron surge in January and February 2022, the 7-day average of hospitals reporting critical staffing shortages peaked at 22 percent during mid-January 2022. Federal, state, and local governments took significant action to address the need for prevention and treatment services that arose from COVID-19 as well as the disruptions in health care delivery and finances that resulted from the pandemic through supplemental funding from federal relief legislation and easing many regulatory requirements. Even after the pandemic, many of the effects the pandemic has had on the health care workforce will likely persist. Addressing these impacts as well as the underlying challenges that pre-dated the pandemic can help build a stronger and more resilient health care system for the future.
- Copyright:
- The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (27 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918540087806676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918540087806676