The Health-Care Staffing Crisis Is Bad and Getting Worse

A recent article published in Bloomberg outlines the national emergency facing our healthcare system due to a shortage of staff, from doctors and nurses to home health aides.

America is in dire need of more health-care workers. There are shortages throughout the system, from doctors and nurses in hospital emergency rooms to aides who work in the homes of seniors and people with disabilities. The crisis has been brewing for years as aging baby boomers put unprecedented strain on the health-care system. The Covid-19 pandemic has only magnified the problem.

These staffing shortages—and in particular, high rates of staff turnover—are causing home health providers to have to turn away more than 25% of new patients, even as demand for their valuable services is increasing.

The job is hard. The pay is low. And the demand is exploding, with the number of Americans age 85 or older expected to approach 5 million by 2030, according to the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. But the pandemic created new challenges. Fearing the spread of Covid, many people moved family members from nursing homes to home health care, further straining an understaffed industry, according to Joe Pecora, president of the Home Healthcare Workers of America.

These staff shortages are not unique to the US, and are being seen around the world in the wake of COVID. However, several countries outrank us when it comes to properly staffing and and paying their healthcare workforces. This is a problem that deserves a solution, for both the hardworking and underpaid healthcare workers and for the patients. To this end, HHWA continues to empower home health aides in their workplaces, and to fight on their behalf for better wages, working conditions, and legislation.