Over 100,000 Physicians Left Their Jobs In 2021: Report
A report finds 117,000 physicians are the biggest group among some 334,000 health care workers who left the workforce, with retirement, burnout, and other pandemic stressors to blame. A nurse strike in the Bay Area, hospitals' financial struggles, and other issues are also in industry news.
Modern Healthcare:
Physicians Left Their Jobs In Droves In 2021: Report
As a profession, physicians lost the most members, with 117,000 individuals leaving their roles last year, followed by nurse practitioners, which lost 53,295 members and physician assistants, with 22,704 positions vacated, according to a report published Thursday by Definitive Healthcare. (Devereaux, 10/20)
Bay Area News Group:
Registered Nurses Plan Five-Day Strike At Alta Bates Summit Medical Center Campuses In Oakland, Berkeley
Hundreds of registered nurses plan to hold a five-day strike over concerns about workplace conditions at Sutter Health’s three Alta Bates Summit Medical Center campuses in Oakland and Berkeley. (Rodgers, 10/23)
Indianapolis Star:
Hospitals Struggling Financially After COVID-19 Pandemic, Survey Says
The past year has proven more taxing financially than any in recent memory for the Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes, pushing hospital leaders to consider whether they will discontinue certain types of care. (Rudavsky, 10/21)
Stat:
Epic's Overhaul Of A Flawed Algorithm Holds Important Lessons For AI
Epic, the nation’s dominant seller of electronic health records, was bracing for a catastrophe. It was June 2021, and a study about to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association had found that Epic’s artificial intelligence tool to predict sepsis, a deadly complication of infection, was prone to missing cases and flooding clinicians with false alarms. (Ross, 10/24)
On rural health care —
KHN:
Drivers In Decline: A Shortage Of Volunteers Complicates Access To Care In Rural America
Several times a month, Jim Maybach drives 5 miles from his house in Hay Creek, Minnesota, toward the Mississippi River. When he reaches Red Wing, a city of nearly 17,000 people, the 79-year-old retired engineer stops to pick up a senior whom he then delivers to an appointment, such as a dentist visit or an exercise class. When the appointment ends, Maybach is there to drive the person home. (Saint Louis, 10/24)
Carolina Public Press:
No Internet, No Telehealth
Two summers ago, Lee Berger sat in her Macon County, N.C., home hunched over a laptop — pulling the small computer closer to her face. It was Berger’s first telehealth appointment, a routine check-up with her primary care physician, and she couldn’t hear what the doctor was saying. (Harris, 10/22)
