How Hospitals and Health Systems Can Mitigate Anesthesia Staffing Shortage Challenges
Demand and supply issues are driving clinical staffing shortages in anesthesia for healthcare providers nationwide. As an aging population requires more surgeries, and medical innovation makes more outpatient procedures possible, hospitals and health systems are freeing ORs and inpatient beds by migrating patients across various service lines to ambulatory surgery settings. This is creating even more ORs that need anesthesia staffing—even as a great portion of anesthesiologists are nearing retirement, fewer anesthesia clinicians are entering the workforce, and younger clinicians have different expectations for compensation and work-life balance. Hospitals struggling with anesthesia staffing challenges may be forced to close some ORs or prioritize case acuity. In this podcast we will discuss mitigation strategies to help hospitals and health systems ensure that their anesthesia staffing allows them to meet patients’ surgical demands and support community health.This episode is sponsored by NAPA.