Too little, too late: Hospitals still struggle to get needed emergency staff
Publisher |
USA TODAY
Wondery
Media Type |
audio
Podknife tags |
News & Politics
Categories Via RSS |
Daily News
News
Publication Date |
Apr 03, 2022
Episode Duration |
00:22:09

Keeping a hospital fully staffed on a day to day basis is no easy task. Throw in an emergency like an outbreak, a hurricane or a pandemic and the situation gets critical. A USA TODAY analysis shows there has been a steep decline in hospital beds around the country. Meaning fewer patients can be treated at hospitals at any one time. We sat down with Jim Kaufman the CEO of the West Virginia Hospital Association who talked about some of the challenges in keeping the right amount of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also spoke with USA TODAY's National Correspondent Donovan Slack and USA TODAY'S Investigative Reporter Erin Mansfield about a little known workforce deployed by the government to work in hospitals during times of emergency. But is it enough? Will it be enough in future emergencies?

For more on this story, click here.

To follow James Brown on Twitter, click here.

To follow Donovan Slack, click here. To follow Erin Mansfield, click here.

Episode Transcript available here

Also available at art19.com/shows/5-Things

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic and hospitals are still struggling to get and keep needed emergency staff.

Keeping a hospital fully staffed on a day to day basis is no easy task. Throw in an emergency like an outbreak, a hurricane or a pandemic and the situation gets critical. A USA TODAY analysis shows there has been a steep decline in hospital beds around the country. Meaning fewer patients can be treated at hospitals at any one time. We sat down with Jim Kaufman the CEO of the West Virginia Hospital Association who talked about some of the challenges in keeping the right amount of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also spoke with USA TODAY's National Correspondent Donovan Slack and USA TODAY'S Investigative Reporter Erin Mansfield about a little known workforce deployed by the government to work in hospitals during times of emergency. But is it enough? Will it be enough in future emergencies?

For more on this story, click here.

To follow James Brown on Twitter, click here.

To follow Donovan Slack, click here. To follow Erin Mansfield, click here.

Episode Transcript available here

Also available at art19.com/shows/5-Things

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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