Hospitals taxed by the pandemic over the last 20 months have a new problem: Labor strife and a wave of resignations have people waiting longer for care
More than a half million health care workers quit in August, the last month for which data is available. That’s the most in a single month in more than 20 years.
Multiple employees contacted by POLITICO said health care workers feel like they’ve gone from “heroes to zeroes” in the eyes of the public, making it harder to tolerate the underlying stresses of the job. Even when they were feted with flyovers and salutes in the depths of the pandemic, they said they never got the protective equipment they needed. Now, on top of being burned out from nearly two years of fighting Covid, they’re being targeted threatened with physical violence.
In a statement, Sutter Health said labor issues were largely avoided across its system, but acknowledged “longstanding staffing issues.” While the vaccine mandates hospitals recently imposed have triggered some isolated walkouts and strike threats, leaders in the industry say the unrest is mainly fueled by the way the pandemic has exacerbated unacceptable working conditions.
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