Health care staffing levels strained by childcare 'crisis,' execs say - Boston Business Journal
By Jessica Bartlett
Remote schooling demands and concerns over the coronavirus have created new staffing gaps for health care systems, which say they are struggling to find people to fill necessary roles.
Months after patient volume was slashed due to coronavirus lockdowns and precautions, hospitals and doctor groups have largely rebounded, bringing in patients who delayed care as well as people who would have normally come to the hospital for routine services.
But finding the staff to care for that influx hasn’t always been easy, and several health executives say they have confronted staffing challenges as their workforce struggles to balance their jobs with increased demands with parental and health challenges.
The pressures exist for employees in every industry across the state. But they are perhaps more acute within the health care sector, both because the work is largely done in person, and because of the risks front line workers have in potentially contracting the virus.
“We're open in all of our sites, but we're having trouble finding staff,” said Dr. Steven Strongwater, president and CEO for the state’s largest independent physician group, Atrius Health. “And that has to do with the fact that there are people who are either afraid to come back who have a chronic illness, and so they won't see patients who have potentially have Covid, or who have major childcare concerns and despite what I think are fairly aggressive efforts on our part — short of setting up our own childcare program — there are people who just have not been able to come back.”