Follow-Up: With Hospital Cutbacks Already Affecting the Public, It’s Time for UC to Step Up

As you may recall, JUCM News just informed you that dozens of hospitals are cutting back on services and hours, or ceasing to provide service altogether in certain departments—and suggested that such moves, necessary as they may be, would have a spillover effect that could ultimately affect urgent care. Now there’s an article in Time magazine indicating that this is already happening. It quotes a county health official who recently visited a local hospital as saying they’ve “never seen the ER that busy; it’s unbelievable there.” The article says there’s a “burgeoning crisis” driven by budget cuts in response to soaring costs, but also provider shortages that are affecting all specialties. Interestingly, the piece suggests that those shortages are partially due to a migration of full-time staff to locums work due to a desire for better work–life balance. Bearing that in mind, it might be a good idea to read Recognizing and Preventing Provider Burnout in Urgent Care to ensure your providers won’t be inclined to join them.