Support Staff Shortages?

[jmj11]

Are you experiencing a shortage of healthcare support personnel? I am a healthcare consumer these days, but I've noticed in my own experience and the experience of my friends that it is becoming more and more difficult accessing providers. It is not the provider's wait times that's the problem, but simply getting a hold of someone to schedule appointments. The phones are not answered and messages are not returned. Referrals are made, but no one gets back, and numerous phone calls to them go unanswered. The CEO of the hospital is a friend and admits they are having a hard time recruiting supporting staff since COVID. I suspect that the greatest problem is hiring enough MAs, nurses, and etc. I know that during the last year of the practice I owned, I had a heck of a time find an MA (ads go out with no response). Here is one report about the problem. Is what I'm experiencing local or universal? What's your experience? I know when I was a PA-employee, shortage of MAs or nurses always made my life more difficult.  Mike

 

[sas5814]

So far in my neck of the woods everyone seems to be pretty well covered. I get timely responses to most things.

[kettle]

I noticed it last year. The specialists don't rotate to the rural clinics much anymore as they cannot get a MA or LPN to go with them. Leaves my patients and myself having to drive 90 minutes to see a specialist

[iconic]

I dont know why anyone would want to work as an MA over Target associate

Edited July 14, 2023 by iconic

[Mayamom]

I'm also a frequent health care consumer now  and yes there is a problem.   I need a bone density done to start medications and could not get an appointment for months because "we have no staff".  Tried to book an appointment with my long term GI doc.   I called 4-5x could not speak to a human.   I had to drive over to the office to get an appointment!!!  My primary care office is till functioning well so I'm glad about that. 

[DiggySRNA]

There's no shortage of nurses (can only speak on this) but there's a shortage of offices/hospitals willing to pay what health care professionals are worth. CNAs should not be making $<15/hr, MAs should not be making $<20/hr and RNs should not be making $<70/hr. Heck, my local UPS delivery driver is making $46/hr. Why is it that a RN is making less than this? Especially specialized nurses dealing with high acuity patients.

There's at least 10 nursing schools within a 15 mile radius where I'm at. For every new grad nurse that is hired, 2-3 experienced nurses leave (anecdotal experience).

[turnedintoamartian]

There’s a shortage in my locale. Wait times are way up, services cut, hospital floors being closed, and burnout continuing.

Perhaps it’s my area more than most but it’s a struggle and morale is low.

[SedRate]

Seems like the shortage is due to employers not wanting to pay what they're worth. One experienced Rad tech and Surg tech who were being paid below-market rates interviewed at two different hospitals and were offered roughly $5k/y more. What'd the CEO come back with? Just under that amount for them to stay. Front desk staff having to be the face of the company and deal with angry pts due to system issues, like ineffective phone systems, poor onboarding/no training, having one person answer the phone AND check in pts AND collect insurance AND ask them to fill out paperwork, etc, for minimum wage with NO benefits and on Medicaid, etc... One MA per provider to return messages, process paperwork, do dressings, room pts, etc -- basically running full bore all day. I don't blame them for leaving.

[thinkertdm]

Medicine is a business.  The only issue the execs debate is cost vs benefit.  Ancillary staff is a cost that admins are realizing they can eliminate.  Providing good medical care is far down the list.

When I was young, registers at Walmart were mostly manned.  Now, I’ve seen two human beings in a line of thirty registers.

cost vs benefit.   The cost of hiring a person who answers the phone far outweighs the benefit.  A phone tree will work just fine, and you don’t need an expensive human.  You don’t even need vitals in a note.  If the provider needs that information, they have hands, they can do it.  

Medicine is a business.  If you think any thing else, then you are seriously deluded.  The bean counters don’t give a single damn about your need to get a colonoscopy or lung cancer screening.  They only care about reducing cost and increasing profit.  

[SedRate]

12 hours ago, thinkertdm said:

Medicine is a business.  The only issue the execs debate is cost vs benefit.  

 They only care about reducing cost and increasing profit.  

Sad but true. And we've only done it to ourselves by creating and rewarding a for-profit medical system that feeds on a country of sick people.

12 hours ago, thinkertdm said:

Medicine is a business.  The bean counters don’t give a single damn about your need to get a colonoscopy or lung cancer screening.  

Except when it comes to the provider checking boxes for screening metrics which increase profits. Then they care a whole lot. Lol. 

[Brigid2010]

On 7/16/2023 at 9:03 PM, SedRate said:

Sad but true. And we've only done it to ourselves by creating and rewarding a for-profit medical system that feeds on a country of sick people.

Except when it comes to the provider checking boxes for screening metrics which increase profits. Then they care a whole lot. Lol. 

Bleak, but-at least in my N=1 perspective, quite true...but bleak.

[ventana]

On 7/15/2023 at 4:37 PM, SedRate said:

Seems like the shortage is due to employers not wanting to pay what they're worth. One experienced Rad tech and Surg tech who were being paid below-market rates interviewed at two different hospitals and were offered roughly $5k/y more. What'd the CEO come back with? Just under that amount for them to stay. Front desk staff having to be the face of the company and deal with angry pts due to system issues, like ineffective phone systems, poor onboarding/no training, having one person answer the phone AND check in pts AND collect insurance AND ask them to fill out paperwork, etc, for minimum wage with NO benefits and on Medicaid, etc... One MA per provider to return messages, process paperwork, do dressings, room pts, etc -- basically running full bore all day. I don't blame them for leaving.

And 

fast food is paying $20/hr in my area.  More then MA and admin jobs 

And 

management is stuck in a circle of self enrichment that they just keep feeding.  

[SedRate]

51 minutes ago, ventana said:

And 

fast food is paying $20/hr in my area.  More then MA and admin jobs 

And 

management is stuck in a circle of self enrichment that they just keep feeding.  

Yep, administrative bloat up the wazoo. 

[sas5814]

10 hours ago, ventana said:

fast food is paying $20/hr in my area.  More then MA and admin jobs 

in my clinic the front desk clerks make more than the LVNs.

[TWR]

On 7/19/2023 at 7:31 AM, Hemmingway said:

in my clinic the front desk clerks make more than the LVNs.

That's crazy and the only reason I can come up with is "because they can".  Reading all of the answers to this post is making me think that unionizing is the only answer.

[rev ronin]

On 7/16/2023 at 6:34 AM, thinkertdm said:

Medicine is a business.  If you think any thing else, then you are seriously deluded.

It didn't start that way and wasn't always that way. As long as it's a business, beatings will continue until morale improves.

Find a way to make medicine a calling again.

[SedRate]

3 hours ago, rev ronin said:

It didn't start that way and wasn't always that way. As long as it's a business, beatings will continue until morale improves.

Find a way to make medicine a calling again.

Agree.

I've found my way back to remembering why I got into medicine in the first place by paying down my debts so I have the financial freedom and thus flexibility to carefully pick jobs that treat me well, offer a schedule where I can actually take care of myself (sleep, exercise, have a life, etc), and allow me to take care of patients the way I would want myself and my family taken care of. I endeavor to make it last. 

[ventana]

9 hours ago, TWR said:

That's crazy and the only reason I can come up with is "because they can".  Reading all of the answers to this post is making me think that unionizing is the only answer.

I have disliked unions till about 10 years ago

Quit one job over standing up for what was right (they were asking me to literally break the law and endanger my own license)

Quit another job when I refused to take a pay cut so the doc's could have a raise

 

Unionization is the only way to fight back against the greedy hospital systems (local community not for profit my butt) and the organized medical system which places profit over everything else.....

[EMEDPA]

I was in the union as a PA at kaiser about 15 years ago. We went from bottom of the barrel pay to setting the standard for the area in pay and benefits overnight. I'm a fan. 

[TWR]

So how would the question of unionizing us begin?  Who to talk t? I bet at a large national conference the room would be full and spill out into the halls!!!!!

[turnedintoamartian]

Univ of Michigan PAs unionized in 2021. They were getting taken significant advantage of compared to NPs as NPs were in the nursing union.

[ventana]

You need to formally invite unions in at the very early stages of the idea to gain some federal protections against the employer........ (from experience on this one)

look at who is supporting you area and invite them to speak to the PA

Administration will get upset and complain, and likely try to force you out, fire you, terminate you - be prepared

 

They know they are making millions off the backs of PA's hard work and a refusing to give us a seat at the table.  Together our voices can be heard.

[kettle]

Agh!!!! This turned into another unionizing post, I'm sure a different post could be done....

[TWR]

kettle, I think the topic is "supporting staff shortages".  Why do you think mentioning unions as a means to ensure fairness at the table and having a voice in fair compensation be not appropriate for this topic?  Just wondering.

[kettle]

I agree a support staff shortage is what the topic was, it turned into another PA's need to unionize thread.