When hospitals do not have enough regular staff to care for
patients, the hospitals often call in temporary staff to fill
the gap. Use of temporary staff in Washington hospitals has
escalated significantly over the past few years. Although agency
staff may be well-qualified clinically, their presence can challenge
patient care. Use of agency workers can create patient care
problems due to their unfamiliarity with the care environment,
policies, procedures, and equipment. The continuity of patient
care can decline when patients are constantly being cared for
by different workers.
Use of agency staff also drains resources from hospitals,
many of which are financially struggling. In 1995, for example,
contract nursing expenses for hospitals in Washington state
were just over $11 million, or about $120,000 for an average
hospital. Only four years later, that figure had grown to
over $40 million, or an average of over $400,000 per hospital.
Washington state hospitals do not have the ability to absorb
these rising costs -- the Washington State Department of Health
recently reported that operating margins for hospitals in
this state are the lowest ever recorded.
2006 Health Care Personnel Shortage, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
