Washington State Hospital Association Releases Report on State Health Care Worker Shortage

A report released Oct. 9 calls for the Washington state Legislature to expand health care programs at public colleges, scholarships and loan forgiveness programs to address the shortage of health care workers in the state, the Spokane Spokesman-Review reports. The Washington State Hospital Association prepared the report, titled "Who Will Care for You?" The report calls the state's health care worker shortage "a growing public health crisis," and "blamed" the shortage for emergency room diversions and growing hospital budget expenditures on temporary staffing. For example, the AP/Spokesman-Review reports that 21% of the budget at Lincoln Hospital and Nursing Home in Davenport, Wash., went toward temporary staffing last year. Meanwhile, at the Intercollegiate College of Nursing/Washington State College of Nursing in Spokane, the state's largest nursing school, "qualified students" have been turned away because of faculty shortages -- which the report attributes to limited funding (Johnson, Spokane Spokesman-Review, 10/9). The report concludes that "state government leaders must learn about the shortage and commit to policy changes and investments of public dollars" ("Who Will Care for You?" October 2001). To this end, the Spokesman-Review reports that WSHA plans to make the state's health care provider shortage its "top priority in coming years" (Spokane Spokesman-Review, 10/9). The full report is available online through the WSHA Web site. Note: You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the report. For further information on state health policy in Washington, visit State Health Facts Online.