Staffing Shortage In Health Care

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute

What works*

Healing the healthcare staffing shortage

*connectedthinking

Table of contents 01
02
03
04

Executive summary l
Key findings l Future Forces l Recommendations l About the research

05 Background: Business policy issues around the supply of nurses and physicians
11 The challenges of inadequate supply
20 Overcoming the disconnect
22
23
25
27
31

Strategies for developing a workforce model for the future l
Develop public-private partnerships l
Encourage technology-based training l
Design flexible roles l
Establish performance-based metrics

35 Conclusion
36 Appendix

Executive summary

Many nurses
What works*

4

Background: Business and policy issues around the supply of nurses and physicians

Registered nurses (RNs) and licensed physicians are the arms and legs of the health industry, and it seems there are never enough. Three-fourths of hospital executives surveyed by HRI for this report said clinical workforce shortages are real. As the healthcare industry grows and now consumes 16% of the overall economy in the U.S., employment as a nurse or physician has delivered one of the most dependable paychecks around. The need for nurses and physicians in hospitals, nursing homes, health plans, pharmaceutical companies, home health agencies, and other health companies has exploded during the past 20 years.
How many is enough? It’s a difficult question to answer, considering the acknowledged inefficiencies of the system overall. In terms of global benchmarks, the U.S. has fewer nurses and physicians per capita than some other industrialized nations, yet it spends far more money per capita—twice as much as other industrialized countries—on healthcare. Would having
In addition, according to the HRI survey, only
18% of hospitals surveyed said recruitment of foreign nurses and doctors was a desirable strategy to combat future shortages.
Critics say the quality of non-U.S. medical schools is highly variable, and that concern is one of the reasons the Association of American Medical Colleges
(AAMC) has called for an increase in the size of U.S. allopathic medical school classes and for new schools to be developed. While some foreign medical schools are accredited by recognized accrediting agencies, many have no accreditation or accreditation with standards appreciably different than those dictated by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME), which accredits U.S. and Canadian allopathic schools.
For example, the quality of this training is illustrated in the passage rates on the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). Passage rates for first-time test-takers on the 2006 USMLE Step 2 examination—which reflects four- year medical education—were 96% for LCME-accredited medical