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Podcast: Anesthesiology News Presents
Episode: U.S. Healthcare Facing a Staffing Crisis
Description: The American healthcare system is experiencing a growing crisis: How do we adequately staff our operating rooms, hospitals, clinics and offices with healthcare professionals? The lack of staff crosses all professional lines, from physicians to nurses to lab technologists—all levels of staff are in short supply. To deal with this challenge, health administrators have resorted to using temporary contract workers known as locums. These temporary, stop-gap employees are usually paid multiple times more than permanent staff. This practice not only undervalues full-time employees, but also exacerbates the crisis because it robs staff from other facilities to staff another. Fi...