To Beat Shortages, Health Care Systems Turning To Retired Staff
Modern Healthcare covers efforts to recruit retired clinicians to deal with Delaware staffing shortages. Other news includes overstretched workers in a children's hospital, plaudits for a Maine rural hospital, analysis of mental health 911 calls in California, and more.
Modern Healthcare:
Health Systems Recruit Retired Clinicians To Rejoin Workforce
Bayhealth has been feeling the vice grip of the “Great Resignation” for years. The Dover, Delaware-based health system has offered bonuses and partnered with local nursing schools to alleviate its clinician shortage, but the strategies have only done so much. “A lot of people had to start thinking out of the box,” said Director of Education Angel Dewey. (Devereaux, 12/20)
KHN:
Inside A Children’s Hospital: Struggling To Cope With A Surge Of Respiratory Illness
Waiting for their turn in the emergency room, dazed-looking parents in winter coats bounced crying children in their arms, trying to catch the eye of Dr. Erica Michiels. Us! Pick us next! they seemed to plead with tired eyes. Michiels directs pediatric emergency medicine at Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Lips pressed together in a thin line, she surveyed what she calls the “disaster” area. “People have been out here waiting for a couple hours, which is heartbreaking,” she said. (Wells, 12/20)
Bangor Daily News:
Houlton Regional Named One Of Nation’s Best Rural Hospitals
When it comes to providing outstanding care to its patients, the Houlton Regional Hospital is viewed as one of the best in the business. For the second year in a row, the hospital has been named by the Leapfrog Group as one of the nation’s top rural hospitals. (Cyr, 12/19)
The Mercury News:
Santa Cruz County Mental Health 911 Calls Analyzed In New Report
The front-line response to emergency calls involving individuals experiencing a mental health crisis has been the subject of much debate on the local and national levels in recent years. But for the first time in Santa Cruz County, officials say they have a cross-jurisdictional survey that can serve as a “baseline of understanding” for ongoing discussions about how the response effort can be refined and improved. (Hattis, 12/19)
Bloomberg:
Instacart Founder Apoorva Mehta Sued For Creating ‘Copycat’ Startup
Instacart Inc. cofounder Apoorva Mehta was accused in a lawsuit of using stolen trade secrets to create a healthcare startup that was a copy of an existing company. (Schneider, 12/20)
In global news —
Bloomberg:
NHS Faces Crisis Week As UK Nurses, Ambulance, Health Workers Strike
People in Britain can call 999 if they have chest pains but shouldn’t contact the emergency services for problems that aren’t life threatening, a health minister said as nurses and ambulance workers go on strike. (Akil Farhat and Chandler-Wilde, 12/20)
AP:
UK Sending 1,200 Troops To Fill In As Ambulance Crews Strike
The British government said Sunday it will dispatch 1,200 troops to fill in for striking ambulance drivers and border staff as multiple public sector unions walk off the job in the week before Christmas. (Lawless, 12/18)
The New York Times:
One Day With An Ambulance In Britain: Long Waits, Rising Frustration
Rachel Parry and Wayne Jones, two paramedics with the Wrexham Ambulance Service, pulled up to a hospital in northern Wales with a patient just after 10 a.m. one early December morning. That’s when their wait began. It would be 4:30 p.m. before their patient, a 47-year-old woman with agonizing back pain and numbness in both of her legs, would be handed over to the emergency department of Wrexham Maelor Hospital. It was more than 12 hours since she had first called 999, the British equivalent of 911. (Specia, 12/20)
