Healthcare Economic Issues

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Capella University *

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6008

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Health Science

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Dec 6, 2023

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HEALTHCARE ECONOMIC ISSUE Healthcare Economic Issues Antonietta Scirocco Capella University NHS-FPX6008 Economic Decision-Making in Health Care Dr. Kathryn Rudd

HEALTHCARE ECONOMIC ISSUE Healthcare Economic Issues Labor Shortages in Healthcare can be a significant economic issue with vast consequences. These shortages occur when there is an insufficient number of healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses, and other essential staff, to meet the demands of healthcare services. This has occurred at most healthcare facilities, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. Some reasonings behind the shortages are the aging labor force, the facility's inability to retain staff, and staff moving onto work positions that do not require in-person presence. Working from home has become the new norm that has pirated many on-the-job laborers away from the brick-and-mortar facilities. Labor Shortages There are many contributing factors to labor shortages, such as burnout, an aging workforce, and the need for more workforce demand. Many of these factors were highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas the mature nurses close to retirement chose to retire rather than work under conditions that would endanger their health. Additionally, with COVID- 19, burnout was familiar as many nurses were overworked due to the shortages and unsavory work conditions. To compensate for the staff shortages during the pandemic, healthcare workers were often mandated to work longer than regular work shifts and take on more responsibilities than their scope of practice, which led to higher rates of burnout, lower job satisfaction, and increased staff turnover. All these situations further exacerbated the labor shortage problems. In Michaeli’s article “The Healthcare Labor Shortage: Practice, theory, evidence, and Ways Forward,” he writes in response to the shortage of nurses during the COVID-19 crisis, New York hospitals raised wages, leading to an increased labor supply as nurses from all over the United States and even retired New York nurses came to the rescue. [ CITATION Dan22 \l 1033 ]

HEALTHCARE ECONOMIC ISSUE Hence, the birth and sensationalizing of the traveling healthcare providers. Major city hospitals still have many shortages, and the financial incentives to fill these positions are lucrative. While the concept of traveling nurses is adaptable to many other platforms and includes highly incentivized pay scales, there are drawbacks, such as the traveler leaving their permanent facility with a shortage and many travelers encountering disgruntled staff at the work assignment because they are being paid so much more than the regular staff. Many hospitals have had to do market analysis surveys to evaluate how they compare to other hospitals and to retain staff. They provided them with market adjustments to the pay. Doing this worked twofold for the facility's benefit: first, the team would be retained because of the higher income, and second, they could decrease their traveler staff, bringing down the expenditures. Aging Workforce The aging workforce is another part of labor shortages. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a massive migration to retirement in older healthcare workers, who might have worked longer if we did not have the pandemic. The two main reasons for their retirement besides that they were at the retirement age were fear of contracting COVID-19 with complicating effects on their health and working in unacceptable conditions like reusing masks and PPE, longer than regular shift hours, working in unsafe environments that they never worked in before and lastly, an overwhelming number of patients per caregiver. According to N. Renuga Nagarajan’s article, “Policy Initiatives to Address the Challenges of an Older Population in the Workforce,” retaining older workers and simultaneously protecting their wellbeing is a significant challenge. [ CITATION NRe21 \l 1033 ] Aging workers believe that their physical fitness, cognitive status, and lack of knowledge of new technology hinder their ongoing workforce participation. Consequently, most aging workers’ difficulty in adopting new

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HEALTHCARE ECONOMIC ISSUE technology can be traced back to fewer opportunities to access training. This challenges younger supervisors as to how to create an age-friendly work environment and maintain an anti-age biases atmosphere. To retain staff and rehire older workers, healthcare facilities looked to their government agencies to change antiquated policies. Agencies like the Gerontological Society of America have worked closely with government agencies to encourage facilities to provide a flexible workplace, like having flexible hours and no call for workers over a certain age. They have also created more support systems through in-house education to help the older workers remain diligent in learning new technology and continuously rehire older workers. Healthcare Economic Choice Rationale I chose labor shortages as a healthcare economic issue because I have seen firsthand how it affected the facility where I work. Older staff have trained me, and I enjoyed working with them, retired during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, I saw how some of the more senior staff struggled with the workplace hardships placed upon them that created an unacceptable work environment. Additionally, I saw new, inexperienced nurses train with our team and then leave to become travel nurses with more lucrative salaries. I have also worked closely with travel staff, making salaries three times as much as we were and doing the same work. These conditions created an unpleasant work environment where many came and went. Has staff retention seen an upswing at our facility? The answer is yes because the facility utilized a third-party agency to conduct a market analysis of state salaries compared to ours, and the verdict was that we were underpaid, and market adjustments were made. While retention has improved, areas like the emergency room, various intensive care units, and trauma operating rooms are still understaffed. In speaking with staff from those areas, one of the main reasons was

HEALTHCARE ECONOMIC ISSUE that their work/life balance was interrupted because of longer call schedules and more stressful shifts, creating burnout quickly. Conclusion In conclusion, labor shortages are still a global phenomenon as the “baby boomer” generation retires, but knowing that people live longer, are more active, and stay healthier. The aging population is no longer viewed as a burden on society. Burnout is happening less as employers utilize grid systems for self-scheduling, where employees can submit more agreeable schedules for a better work-life balance. Lastly, workforce retention has improved, so staffing is not unbalanced and creates a more positive work environment. Bibliography Daniel Tobias Michaeli, M., Julia Caroline Michaeli, M., Sebastian Albers, M., & Thomas Michaeli, M. M. (2022, March 26). The Healthcare Labor Shortage: Practice, Theory, Evidence, and Ways Forward . Retrieved from SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4067462

HEALTHCARE ECONOMIC ISSUE Nagarajan, N. R., & Sixsmith, A. (2021). Policy Initiatives to Address the Challenges of an Older Population in the Workforce. Springer Science , 41-56.

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