Massachusetts healthcare providers experienced "pretty striking and totally unprecedented" employment changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said David Auerbach, PhD, research director for the state's Health Policy Commission, in an interview with The Lowell Sun.
Five takeaways from the commission's recent findings:
1. Nationally, physician offices and outpatient care providers saw steeper employment drops in May than hospitals and nursing homes did.
2. From February to April, physician office employment in Massachusetts nosedived about 30 percent.
3. Employment at outpatient care centers dropped 22 percent in the same time frame.
4. Nursing home and home health employment decreased 12 percent.
5. Meanwhile, Massachusetts' hospital employment numbers largely remained stagnant.
"Since the onset of the pandemic, patients have had reduced access to the doctors who care for them," said Massachusetts Medical Society President David Rosman, MD, in a statement to the Sun. "As a result, primary care practices and other physician practices have been hit hard financially, principally because of a precipitous drop in patient volume. This has resulted in job losses and permanent loss of some practices."