As hospitals continue to face staffing challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they are simultaneously competing with other hospitals for workers while trying to retain their own.
Staffing challenges have been widely reported among organizations, which cite factors such as employees retiring, workers leaving their profession and workers taking more lucrative traveling assignments.
"We are nationally having a healthcare worker staffing crisis," Suresh Gunasekaran, CEO of Iowa City-based University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, said Sept. 22, according to The Gazette. "In general, with this much hospitalization happening across the nation, all hospitals are having trouble retaining their staff and recruiting staff.
"We've had numerous healthcare workers across the nation exit the healthcare workforce, either through early retirement or just wanting to temporarily take a break," he said. "And that's coming to roost inside of Iowa and inside UIHC."
Mr. Gunasekaran said staff absence because of COVID-19 exposure is also creating challenges for his organization and cited the ability to preserve staff as a primary concern, more so than the availability of beds.
He said University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics is trying to hire hundreds of workers, including food service workers, housekeepers, maintenance staff, nursing assistants and student aides, and is relying more on traveling nurses.
In Kentucky, hospitals have thousands of job openings, and many hospitals also face staffing strain because unvaccinated staff are in quarantine or isolation after being exposed to COVID-19, Kentucky Hospital Association President Nancy Galvagni told state lawmakers during a committee meeting Sept. 22, according to Spectrum News 1.
Ms. Galvagni also said hospitals are struggling to compete with other states for traveling nurses.
Vaccine mandates add another component to the staffing challenges, too.
States and healthcare organizations have announced mandates in recent months, and some U.S. health systems have also seen workers leave because of the requirements.
James Magee, executive director of Piggott (Ark.) Community Hospital, told news station KAIT his organization does not require the COVID-19 vaccine for staff, and concerns about losing too many nurses was a key reason for that decision. He also cited the particular staffing situation at rural hospitals.
"Mandating that really works a hardship on the smaller hospitals because we don't have an extra pool of nurses to draw from out there," he told KAIT.
While some hospitals have not mandated the vaccine, new federal requirements are planned. President Joe Biden has announced that his pandemic approach will require COVID-19 vaccinations of workers at organizations with more than 100 employees, federal executive branch workers, and more than 17 million healthcare workers at Medicare- and Medicaid-participating hospitals and in other healthcare settings.
Organizations that have held off on mandates said they are awaiting further federal guidance.