Hospitals

Economic Woes Hit Hospitals

Four months ago, I wrote that the health care sector added jobs despite the overwhelming job losses in the rest of the economy.  Looks like the health care sector has not been fully insulated against the economic woes:

” Six out of ten hospitals nationally are seeing a greater proportion of patients without insurance coming through their emergency departments, according to a new survey from the American Hospital Association (AHA). At the same time, nearly half of hospitals reported they have cut staff. Recent employment information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that hospital employment is no longer growing and that the number of mass layoffs for hospitals reported in February was more than double what it was a year ago.”

You can view the results of the AHA survey here.

1 Comment

  1. True, during a recession people are going to put off (or not have) “elective” surgery and will not see doctors for things they would have otherwise made appointments for when they had health insurance through their jobs, but that doesn’t mean that health professionals aren’t in demand. Unfortunately, by avoiding preventative care, many people will end up in emergency rooms and there will need to be staff to take care of these people. In addition, health care is a necessary job (there will always be sick people, always be injuries) and many areas are understaffed as it is. With the baby boomers heading toward retirement there will be even more openings without enough people to fill the positions. Take nursing. Nursing is an in demand position and that will only become worse. Nursing educators are desperately needed to expand enrollment to fill the nursing career pipeline.

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