Citing Pennsylvania’s dubious distinction of having some of the most severe shortages of health care professionals in the nation, hospitals want Gov. Josh Shapiro and lawmakers to act.
The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania on Monday called for a health care workforce council to be established, led by a chief health care talent officer.
Ongoing shortages include a 32% vacancy rate for nursing support staff, a 32% vacancy rate for respiratory therapists, and a 31% vacancy rate for registered nurses, according to HAP. It said Pennsylvania has a worst-in-the-nation shortfall of 20,345 registered nurses.
“Government leaders, educators and the health care community must work together to support, attract, educate and train the health care professionals needed to care for Pennsylvanians,” HAP President and CEO Andy Carter said in a statement.
Extent of shortage
The call from HAP came less than a week after Shapiro was sworn into office, but after years of growing recognition that Pennsylvania’s shortages are dire.
HAP’s data showed:
• The shortfall of 277,711 nursing support staff in Pennsylvania is the third most severe in the nation, and the shortfall of 6,330 mental health professionals also is third worst.
• From 2019 to 2022, vacancy rates for nursing support staff — certified nurse assistants, personal care assistants and nurse aides — increased from 31.5% to 32.3%.
• Certified registered nurse practitioners’ vacancy rates increased about 10% in the same time period, respiratory therapists’ vacancy rates went from about 20% to 32%, and medical assistants’ vacancy rates increased from 30% to 42%.
HAP said it wanted a mutual commitment from Shapiro, the Legislature and hospitals to prioritize health care talent infrastructure, support workers and strengthen the health care community.
Shapiro’s spokesperson, Manuel Bonder, said the governor is aware of the health care worker shortages and “knows the critical importance of bringing people together to tackle our workforce development challenges.”
Bonder said Shapiro “will be taking direct, proactive action toward addressing this crisis.”
In an unrelated move Tuesday, Shapiro said he signed an executive order to establish the Pennsylvania Office of Transformation and Opportunity, as well as the Economic Development Strategy Group.
In a news release, Shapiro said the office would be “a one-stop-shop for businesses looking to grow and will work to aggressively reignite Pennsylvania’s economy — fostering innovation, supporting transformational economic development, and creating real opportunity for businesses and workers alike in our Commonwealth, particularly in communities that have too often been left behind.”
Legislative efforts
Sen. Lisa Boscola, a Northampton County Democrat, said the pandemic made it clear hospitals and nursing homes are short-staffed and “we needed to do more to help recruit and retain talent.”
In 2021, former Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law a Boscola bill intended to qualify more nurses for licensure by letting Pennsylvania join a multistate nurse licensure compact.
“There are a host of other compact bills I am advocating for the state to join,” Boscola said.
She and Washington County Republican Sen. Camera Bartolotta are pushing fellow lawmakers to approve a bill to let certified registered nurse practitioners work independently, jettisoning the requirement for collaboration agreements with physicians.
Wayne Reich Jr., president of the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association, said the main focus should be on reasons nurses leave their jobs.
“They come out of nursing school, they see what the conditions are like, and they leave the profession,” Reich said.
Hospitals, Reich said, could have mitigated the worsening staffing crisis during the pandemic by offering a pandemic stipend to staff nurses, who many times quit hospital jobs to take better-paying positions as travel nurses.
Nonetheless, Reich said: “This was happening before the pandemic started. The pandemic made everything worse.”
Cheryl Schlamb, president of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Nurse Practitioners, said the Boscola-Bartolotta bill would help.
“People are going to drive across the state line and work where they can apply their skills with limited restrictions,” Schlamb said.
She spoke in positive terms of HAP’s proposal.
“If we can stop the bleeding and get young people to stay in this state and do the work that is needed, that is great,” she said.
Asked about HAP’s proposal, Dr. F. Wilson Jackson, president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, said it supports any effort to develop the health care workforce, adding the society is particularly concerned about the mental health of health care workers who toiled through the pandemic.
Source: Berkshire mont
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