The COVID-19 pandemic introduced unprecedented stress for healthcare workers, leading to widespread burnout in the profession, with workers leaving the industry in higher numbers than ever before.
Craig Gold, administrator at Virginia Center for Eye Surgery in Virginia Beach, told "Becker's ASC Review Podcast" that he thinks the labor market in healthcare will stabilize as workers settle into new work environments.
Note: This is an edited excerpt. Listen to the full podcast episode here.
Question: What trends are you following most closely right now?
Craig Gold: One big thing that's really taken a lot of my time is the 'Great Resignation.' Before I got here, and even in my first few months, there was a great deal of turnover in the clinical staff. Mostly it was because there were so many opportunities opening up at hospitals that were offering these incredible sign-on bonuses that we just couldn't compete with. We have a lot of benefits to offer, but when the hospital down the street is offering a $15,000 sign-on bonus, it's really hard to compete with something like that.
So we lost quite a few people. At the same time there were those who had been working at hospitals who got burnt out over the past couple years. They saw us as an opportunity to scale back their work-life balance. So there was a big shift in the environments of care that [staff were] looking for.
What I'm hoping for in the next year is some stability. I think as the population increases the rates of vaccination, whatever variants come around hopefully won't be as big a burden and there will be less community spread because more people are vaccinated.
And I think the labor issue will also stabilize over the next year. Our turnover over the past couple of months has definitely toned down compared to when I first started, and before I got there. I'm hoping that's a promising sign of some stability.