Medical Staffing Shortages Will Likely Get Worse Before They Improve — Here’s How to Help

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If you have tried to make a doctor’s appointment in recent months, you might have encountered issues caused by health care provider shortages. Long wait times, difficulty getting appointments, and other stressors are all ripple effects of a health care provider shortage that has gripped the U.S. in recent years. Over the next several years, the health care industry will face staff shortages in the hundreds of thousands of professionals at all levels.

“We’re going to see it get worse before it gets better,” said Michele Crum, Northeast regional risk manager with ProAssurance:

“The pool of health care workers coming in is much smaller than the previous generations. Baby Boomers, as well as the Gen Xers that followed my generation, are facing the onset of  retirement, creating a decrease in the number of available professionals.”

It will take several different solutions to help combat the shortages health care workers currently face. A mix of policy changes, better benefits, and other actions will be needed to attract more workers into the field.

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