Rick Pollack, President and CEO, AHA
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AHA member hospitals and health systems are committed to supporting the health care workforce. We support lifting the cap on Medicare-funded physician residencies; boosting support for nursing schools and faculty; providing scholarships and loan forgiveness; and, expediting visas for all highly trained foreign health care workers.
Health care is, at its core, people caring for people. But the pandemic has strained our health care workforce like never before. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that hospital employment decreased by almost 100,000 from February 2020 to September 2021, and 30% of health care workers have considered leaving the profession during the pandemic.
As our nation emerges slowly from the devastating effects of the pandemic, the value of America’s hospitals and health systems—and the women and men who work there—has never been more clear. Whether treating patients with compassion and bravery, providing life-saving care or stepping in to plug the gaps in the nation’s ailing public health infrastructure in other ways, hospitals and health systems were there for all of us when we needed them the most.