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The COVID-19 pandemic put an unprecedented strain on our
health care system.
We surveyed more than 300 facilities (e.g., military hospitals and nursing homes) across four federal health care programs to see if they had enough medical staff to support the pandemic response.
We learned that health care staffing shortages
existed before the pandemic.
And then became worse.
🩺 Small Doses 🩺
Nurses and medical officers were the most reported staffing shortage.
- 94% of the nursing homes we surveyed reported a nursing shortage during the pandemic.
The pandemic made it more difficult to maintain staffing.
- Officials from 33 nursing homes said some staff quit because
they didn’t want to contract COVID-19 and potentially expose
family members.
Federal facilities had a hard time competing with the private sector.
- Officials at one Department of Defense military hospital said the private sector offered $33,000 more annually than the federal government for a similar nursing job in the same community.
Lack of staff affected patient satisfaction.
- An estimated 80% of federal prisoners rated the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons medical care as “poor” during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, that number was 41%.
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