March 10, 2022

Name calling is not a planning strategy

We all see them. There are Now HIring! signs at every type of business: service, retail, education, law enforcement, yada, yada, yada. It would be wrong headed to expect the health care industry to be an exception. It is not.

Job openings in the "Health Care and Social Assistance" sector have grown 810,000 since the pre-pandemic standard of February 2020. They now total 1,944,000. Nurses and direct care workers find themselves in the unusual position (for them) of being in a sellers' market. The reaction of policy makers and stakeholders? To label them and the staffing agencies they are turning to as "greedy" and this predictable supply/demand phenomenon as "price gouging." 

That will not address the issues of health care access now stemming from mass retirements and burnout. It just will not.