Southwestern PA Hospitals Soon Could Face Staffing Shortages

Eric Heyl
·2 min read

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine on Thursday precited that some southwestern Pennsylvania hospitals could experience staffing shortages within the next week.

That could lead to hospitals in the region being forced to cut back on elective surgeries. Staffing shortages are one of three criteria - along with COVID-19 surge percentage and inadequate bed availability percentage - that could trigger a mandatory 50 percent reduction in elective procedures if two of the three are met.

A maximum of 33 percent of a region's hospitals can anticipate staffing shortages in the next week before that criterion's threshold is met. As of Thursday, 47 percent of hospitals in the 13-county southwestern Pennsylvania region are expecting such shortages, according to the state health department coronavirus website.

"We have a significant level of concern about the amount of staff, because it’s not infinite,” Levine said.

“There are staff that are being diverted to patients who have COVID-19. Also, there are staff that have COVID, and there are staff that have to quarantine so there are many reasons why there might be staffing issues."

Her comments echoed the words of Allegheny County Health Department Director Dr. Debra Bogen, who said at a news conference on Wednesday that hospitals expanding bed capacity to care for an increasing number of patients wouldn't solve the problem.

"The bigger challenge is to staff those beds to care for those patients," Bogen said. "In some hospitals in our region our health care workers already quite stretched."

The issue doesn't involve just doctors and nurses. Bogen noted that hospital staffs include nursing assistants, respiratory therapists, radiology technicians, food service employees and cleaning staff. She said that all hospital employees are at higher risk of being exposed to the virus and they also might have to take time off to care for an ill or quarantined family member.


This article originally appeared on the Pittsburgh Patch