Ongoing pandemic stretching health systems and hospitals to their limits
By Christopher Cheney
The delta and omicron coronavirus variant surges have pushed health systems and hospitals to a breaking point, according to healthcare provider executives during a recent webcast hosted by the American Hospital Association.
The coronavirus pandemic is the biggest public health crisis in generations. The pandemic has strained health systems and hospitals on several fronts, including staffing, supply chain, and finances. In 2020 and 2021, health systems and hospitals received financial assistance from the federal government, but that assistance is dwindling.
Health systems and hospitals need a new infusion of federal support to avoid calamity, Craig Cordola, executive vice president and chief operating officer of St. Louis-based Ascension, said during the webcast. Ascension operates 142 hospitals in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
“The healthcare system needs additional support now to address the immediate impacts of the exponential new costs incurred because of delta and omicron, which hit hard in the second year of the pandemic. We do appreciate that Congress recognized the need early in the pandemic to provide financial support to hospitals and health systems, but most of that support was provided before the delta and omicron surges, which have placed unprecedented strain on our caregivers,” he said.
The omicron surge has created severe workforce problems at health systems and hospitals, Cordola and the other healthcare provider executives said.
“We have had a record number of associates who were on paid furlough due to COVID infection and exposure. This has increased our need for contract staffing and created unprecedented spikes in our labor costs, compounding the already difficult position we have been in regarding the need for additional staff and caregivers across our health ministry. The cost impact related to the additional contract staff alone has been substantial. In a typical year, we might spend $100 million on contract labor. We are now spending that much per month,” Cordola said.
The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on healthcare workers, said Lori Morgan, CEO of 619-bed Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, California.
“The care that our staff has provided has been physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing. The pandemic has been an unending marathon of illness and death that none of our caregivers had previously experienced. In addition to the burdens of their work, our staff have all of the same pressures of COVID infection, death, and family and societal responsibilities at home. Yet, they get up every day and come to work to care for those who need us, and the need has been great. Our teams are exhausted, and they are burned out. The toll that this has taken has led to many early retirements and—worse of all—those within the first few years of training have started to leave the profession. Our retirements have increased more than 20% over usual levels and those leaving healthcare in the first few years post-training has become surprisingly common,” she said.
Read the full story here.