Is the Growth in Hospital Wages Sustainable?

Hospitals responded to labor shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic by increasing wages to rebuild and maintain their workforce. This rise in wages has greatly benefited workers who were already experiencing historic levels of burnout pre-pandemic, but the elevated labor costs have hit many hospitals’ bottom lines. These competing views are discussed in a new Beckers Hospital Review article.

According to the authors, “At the start of the workforce shortage, hospitals and health systems turned to more immediate retention and recruitment efforts: bonuses and pay increases, according to Kaufman Hall’s Senior Vice President Therese Fitzpatrick, PhD, RN, and Managing Director Dawn Samaris. However, now that the staffing shortage has stabilized in some parts of the country — though not all — hospitals are turning to more strategic, long-term strategies to ease the labor shortage, they said.”

Read more by clicking here.

(Source: Beckers Hospital Review, April 6^th, 2022)