By HFT Staff

The American Hospital Association (AHA) recently urged Congress to address the ongoing staffing shortage in a statement submitted to the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee. In the statement, the agency discussed the labor shortage and the way it is impacting hospitals and health systems, detailing ways the field is supporting its workforce and asking Congress to enact policies to address the issue. Suggestions that were made include: 

• lifting the cap on Medicare-funded physician residencies and boosting support for nursing schools, faculty, scholarships and loan forgiveness 
• expediting visas for highly trained foreign workers 
• providing funding to help providers to cover increased staffing costs and address behavioral health needs for workers. 

The AHA also called for enacting the Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, which would direct resources to prevent suicide and behavioral health disorders in health care professions, among other actions.  

“As America enters the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care providers are confronting a landscape deeply altered by its effects,” according to the AHA statement. “As of Feb. 10, 2022, there have been approximately 80 million COVID-19 cases and over 900,000 deaths in the U.S., with nearly 30 million cases and approximately 110,000 deaths in just the last two months. Our nation’s hospital and health system workers have been on the front lines of this crisis since the outset, caring for millions of patients, including nearly 4.4 million patients hospitalized with COVID-19. During this time, hospitals have continued to face a range of pressures, with workforce-related challenges among those most critical. 

“Though managing workforce pressures were a challenge for hospitals even before the pandemic, these challenges have only grown more acute,” the statement continues. “The incredible physical and emotional toll that hospital workers have endured in caring for patients during the pandemic has, among other issues, exacerbated the shortage of hospital workers. This shortage has become so critical that some states and the federal government have deployed military and National Guard resources to help mitigate staffing challenges at some hospitals. As this shortage has worsened and COVID-19 hospitalizations have reached record levels, labor costs for hospitals have increased dramatically. This combination of factors has been exploited by travel staffing companies and other firms that provide contract labor resources, driving up workforce slots even more for hospitals. Hospitals also have incurred significant costs in recruiting and retaining staff, which have included overtime pay, bonus pay and other incentives. This is occurring at a time when many hospitals and health systems are still facing other immense financial constraints. For many hospitals around the country, this has led to an unsustainable situation that threatens their ability to care for the patients and communities they serve.”