Caring on Our Own: The Impact of the Health Care Staffing Shortage
New research points to the significant staffing shortage which means family caregivers will continue to do more and more.
Last week, I wrote about the business case for paying family caregivers through payers and providers. My own personal experience with home care and hospice staffing shortages helped me connect the dots: When providers don’t have the staff needed to care for patients, family caregivers step in to do more and more. But, we don’t get paid for solving the staffing shortage.
More research released this week points to the crisis we’re facing because we don’t have enough health care professionals in the system to meet the needs of patients and our carees.
Consider results from Home Health Care News Home-Based Care Staff Productivity 2023 survey:
41% of providers who responded indicated that their outlook on the staffing climate has worsened to some degree in the last 6 months. These home care providers rated the current staffing climate in home-based care an 8 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most challenging.
69% of participants reported that their average patient caseload for clinicians and frontline staff is 11 or more. 39% have a caseload of more than 21 patients.
A study sponsored by Tebra found that 77% of healthcare workers it surveyed believe a healthcare crisis will occur within the next year due to understaffing and employee burnout, according to its report “Staffing shortages and sleep deprivation: The post-COVID healthcare crisis.” Other survey findings include:
1 in 3 healthcare workers surveyed plan to leave their job within the next year, and 14% plan to leave the industry entirely.
More than 1 in 3 healthcare workers surveyed responded that they have made a mistake at work due to lack of sleep.
73% of healthcare workers surveyed feel underpaid, and 59% feel unappreciated at work.
60% of healthcare workers surveyed say they are currently short-staffed.
Patient care doesn’t stop because of the health care workforce shortage. It simply means family caregivers do more and more. We can’t continue to be the only health care provider who doesn’t get paid for providing care.
Let’s Continue the Conversation
Join me on September 29 at 1 p.m. ET (Noon CT, 10 a.m. PT) to talk out the possibilities and consider what our next steps could be to advocate for a solution for providers and payers to reimburse family caregivers for the care they provide, especially when a caree receives benefits through a Medicare Advantage plan, home health and hospice.
Resources
We met on Friday for our special workshop, Planning Your Temporary Career Leave to Manage Caregiving Responsibilities. The archive of our event, Planning Your Temporary Career Leave, is available for you to watch: https://join.caringourway.com/spaces/11946813
(Image by DaModernDaVinci from Pixabay.)