U.S. Hospitals Struggle to Match Walmart Pay as Staff Flees Omicron
By
John Tozzi
January 7, 2022, 7:00 AM EST
A medical worker in the ICU ward of a hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts on Jan. 4. Photographer: Joseph
U.S. hospitals are struggling to get the workers they need to treat patients through the winter’s Covid-19 surge as the virus collides with a historically tight labor market.
High demand for labor throughout the economy is making it harder to find replacements for doctors, nurses and support staff who have been sidelined by the omicron variant. It’s especially tough in small towns and rural areas with aging populations and fewer people entering the workforce.
Finding sufficient staff is a daily challenge that industry veterans say is harder than any time they can remember. Job openings in health care and social assistance are more than double their pandemic lows, and a record number of people are quitting.
“This is the most significant labor shortage that we have ever seen,” said Sally Zuel, vice president of human resources at Union Health in Terre Haute, Indiana.
As a result, wages are climbing skyward: In November hospitals’ labor expense per patient was 26% above the pre-Covid level two years earlier, according to data from consulting firm Kaufman Hall.
Labor Squeeze
Openings and quits in health care and social assistance
Beyond shortages of clinical professionals, it has become tougher to hire and retain workers in other roles essential to keeping medical centers running, from technicians to food service workers to the people who prep rooms in between patients, hospital officials say. To fill those positions, it’s increasingly necessary to compete on wages with other industries even while persuading workers that they can safely prepare food or clean floors inside health-care buildings during a pandemic.
In Terre Haute, Indiana, Zuel scrambles to get adequate coverage for each 12-hour shift. The health system, with about 3,000 employees, recently decided to move nurses from support positions into direct patient care. Radiology and lab technicians, phlebotomists and respiratory therapists are all hard to find.
Some relief arrived in uniform in December: The state sent a couple of medics and other support staff from the National Guard. They mostly work in the emergency department, where every morning patients wait for hospital beds to open. Others work in nutrition.
The current Covid surge in the area isn’t expected to subside before February. The volume of patients means staffing will remain tight. “We need every person every day,” Zuel said.
Labor Squeeze
In November, as Covid spread throughout the state, Indiana’s unemployment rate was 3%, or 1.2 percentage points lower than national level. The tight labor market has had ripple effects: Sometimes short-staffed pharmacies close without notice, so patients can’t pick up their prescriptions after they’re discharged, hospital officials said.
Nebraska has the lowest unemployment rate of any U.S. state, at 1.8% in November. In that environment, lots of employers struggle to find workers. But the stakes in health care are higher, especially in the Covid era.
Troy Bruntz runs Community Hospital, a 25-bed critical access facility in McCook, Nebraska. He’s been trying to recruit a third ultrasound technician for at least six months without getting a single application.
For lower-level positions, the hospital competes with the local Walmart store, where wages are rising. He monitors the pay offered by the retailer as well as the other large local employers, a hose manufacturer and an irrigation equipment supplier.
“What used to be an $8 job now is $15,” said Bruntz, a 52-year-old who once worked as an accountant for KPMG. “That’s the only way we get people to come to work.”
Most of the patients in Community Hospital aren’t there for Covid, but the facility is still full. Patient transfers get delayed as larger regional facilities fill up too, backing up the emergency room. “I went to the floor to help,” Bruntz said. “I’m a CPA, remember – but I can sit and watch a patient that needs someone to monitor them. And I did.”
He sees a long-term dilemma that will persist beyond Covid waves, particularly in rural areas with aging populations. “We’re going to have so many more people retiring than entering the workforce that this is just going to get worse,” Bruntz said.
Rising Wages
Across the state in Columbus, Nebraska, Mike Hansen, chief executive of Columbus Community Hospital, said hourly entry-level wages have been going up for two years and are now in the $15 to $18 range. Nursing wages have increased by $4 to $6 per hour just in the last year, to start at $35 to $40 and rising with experience.
Revised quarantine guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have helped get staff back faster after exposures or illnesses, he said.
Still, the hospital is admitting six to 12 Covid patients daily. Other patients coming in seem to be sicker, Hansen said. He’s hoping that the omicron variant may cause less severe disease, resulting in fewer patients needing hospitalization.
Hansen, 61, calls the pandemic labor squeeze the worst in his four-decade career. “People need to realize, health-care people have been at this for almost two years now,” he said. “It’s been highly stressful.”
By
John Tozzi
January 7, 2022, 7:00 AM EST
-
With workers in short supply, an accountant sits with patients -
Rural hospitals serving older communities are at greatest risk
A medical worker in the ICU ward of a hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts on Jan. 4. Photographer: Joseph
U.S. hospitals are struggling to get the workers they need to treat patients through the winter’s Covid-19 surge as the virus collides with a historically tight labor market.
High demand for labor throughout the economy is making it harder to find replacements for doctors, nurses and support staff who have been sidelined by the omicron variant. It’s especially tough in small towns and rural areas with aging populations and fewer people entering the workforce.
Finding sufficient staff is a daily challenge that industry veterans say is harder than any time they can remember. Job openings in health care and social assistance are more than double their pandemic lows, and a record number of people are quitting.
“This is the most significant labor shortage that we have ever seen,” said Sally Zuel, vice president of human resources at Union Health in Terre Haute, Indiana.
As a result, wages are climbing skyward: In November hospitals’ labor expense per patient was 26% above the pre-Covid level two years earlier, according to data from consulting firm Kaufman Hall.
Labor Squeeze
Openings and quits in health care and social assistance
Beyond shortages of clinical professionals, it has become tougher to hire and retain workers in other roles essential to keeping medical centers running, from technicians to food service workers to the people who prep rooms in between patients, hospital officials say. To fill those positions, it’s increasingly necessary to compete on wages with other industries even while persuading workers that they can safely prepare food or clean floors inside health-care buildings during a pandemic.
In Terre Haute, Indiana, Zuel scrambles to get adequate coverage for each 12-hour shift. The health system, with about 3,000 employees, recently decided to move nurses from support positions into direct patient care. Radiology and lab technicians, phlebotomists and respiratory therapists are all hard to find.
Some relief arrived in uniform in December: The state sent a couple of medics and other support staff from the National Guard. They mostly work in the emergency department, where every morning patients wait for hospital beds to open. Others work in nutrition.
The current Covid surge in the area isn’t expected to subside before February. The volume of patients means staffing will remain tight. “We need every person every day,” Zuel said.
Labor Squeeze
In November, as Covid spread throughout the state, Indiana’s unemployment rate was 3%, or 1.2 percentage points lower than national level. The tight labor market has had ripple effects: Sometimes short-staffed pharmacies close without notice, so patients can’t pick up their prescriptions after they’re discharged, hospital officials said.
Nebraska has the lowest unemployment rate of any U.S. state, at 1.8% in November. In that environment, lots of employers struggle to find workers. But the stakes in health care are higher, especially in the Covid era.
Troy Bruntz runs Community Hospital, a 25-bed critical access facility in McCook, Nebraska. He’s been trying to recruit a third ultrasound technician for at least six months without getting a single application.
For lower-level positions, the hospital competes with the local Walmart store, where wages are rising. He monitors the pay offered by the retailer as well as the other large local employers, a hose manufacturer and an irrigation equipment supplier.
“What used to be an $8 job now is $15,” said Bruntz, a 52-year-old who once worked as an accountant for KPMG. “That’s the only way we get people to come to work.”
Most of the patients in Community Hospital aren’t there for Covid, but the facility is still full. Patient transfers get delayed as larger regional facilities fill up too, backing up the emergency room. “I went to the floor to help,” Bruntz said. “I’m a CPA, remember – but I can sit and watch a patient that needs someone to monitor them. And I did.”
He sees a long-term dilemma that will persist beyond Covid waves, particularly in rural areas with aging populations. “We’re going to have so many more people retiring than entering the workforce that this is just going to get worse,” Bruntz said.
Rising Wages
Across the state in Columbus, Nebraska, Mike Hansen, chief executive of Columbus Community Hospital, said hourly entry-level wages have been going up for two years and are now in the $15 to $18 range. Nursing wages have increased by $4 to $6 per hour just in the last year, to start at $35 to $40 and rising with experience.
Revised quarantine guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have helped get staff back faster after exposures or illnesses, he said.
Still, the hospital is admitting six to 12 Covid patients daily. Other patients coming in seem to be sicker, Hansen said. He’s hoping that the omicron variant may cause less severe disease, resulting in fewer patients needing hospitalization.
Hansen, 61, calls the pandemic labor squeeze the worst in his four-decade career. “People need to realize, health-care people have been at this for almost two years now,” he said. “It’s been highly stressful.”
no job in any hospital in america should be that low since they charge patients a lot for medical care.
Wishing you much luck. Ive been working my gig for a few months and am studying for certs in the meantime. Plan to hop right back on the market in a few more months and ask for 35% higher pay. This is probably the greatest opportunity in a long time to push for as much as you can get.
