On March 2, the Home Power and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a listening to titled, “Classes from the Frontline: COVID-19’s Influence on American Well being Care.” The listening to supplied frontline employees with the chance to each share and mirror on their experiences caring for sufferers in the course of the pandemic, in addition to present suggestions as to how the nation can put together to face future public well being emergencies.
In his opening assertion, committee Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) mentioned the inordinate pressure that the COVID-19 pandemic, and the extremely virulent omicron variant, has positioned on the nation’s well being care system. Pallone mirrored upon how the COVID-19 surges have overwhelmed well being programs, leading to “overload, burnout, and elevated nervousness or melancholy” amongst well being care employees, in addition to delayed and foregone take care of sufferers.
Pallone additionally highlighted the efforts of Congress and the Biden administration to deal with these challenges via billions of {dollars} in funding via the American Rescue Plan and CARES Act. He concluded by noting key provisions of the Construct Again Higher Act (H.R. 5376) that may develop and improve the nation’s well being care workforce. AAMC President and CEO David J. Skorton, MD, and Chief Public Coverage Officer Karen Fisher, JD, beforehand issued a press release commending the Construct Again Higher Act’s proposed investments in graduate medical training, together with the creation of 4,000 new Medicare-supported GME positions and the institution of the Pathways to Apply Coaching Program, which might strengthen and diversify the nation’s psychological well being workforce.
Echoing Pallone’s feedback, subcommittee Chair Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) mentioned the immense affect of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated psychological well being challenges on the nation’s well being care workforce capability. DeGette mentioned how “workforce strains and capability challenges additional compound historic inequities and well being disparities,” calling on Congress and the Biden administration to put money into well being care workforce and system assist. She concluded, “As a nation, we’ve relied on well being care employees to bear a major burden these final two years … We owe a debt of gratitude for his or her management and sacrifices.”
Subcommittee Rating Member Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) mirrored on the necessity to gather classes realized from the COVID-19 pandemic to reinforce future emergency preparedness. Griffith highlighted the chance that the pandemic gave suppliers to pursue “inventive options” in well being care, reminiscent of telehealth flexibilities, at-home affected person monitoring, and expanded scope of follow for pharmacists to manage COVID-19 vaccines.
The subcommittee heard from Megan Ranney, MD, MPH, an emergency doctor and professor of Emergency Drugs at Rhode Island Hospital and the educational dean of the Faculty of Public Well being at Brown College. In her testimony, Ranney warned towards the untimely declaration of the pandemic’s conclusion and as a substitute inspired the subcommittee to view this second as “a respite and a second to deal with the numerous issues that bought us right here within the first place.”
Responding to questions concerning the position of vaccine mandates for well being care suppliers, Ranney juxtaposed her personal hospital’s experiences with staffing shortages towards nationwide statistics, which report that almost one in 5 well being care employees have stop for the reason that onset of the pandemic. Ranney ascribed this excessive charge of attrition to “ethical damage” ensuing from well being care suppliers’ incapacity to adequately care for his or her sufferers, emotional misery, office violence, retirement, and at last, an inclination for assist workers to gravitate in the direction of extremely paid “vacationers’ positions.” To deal with these challenges, Ranney made a number of suggestions reminiscent of expanded entry to behavioral well being assist for well being care employees. Ranney voiced her assist for the lately handed Lorna Breen Well being Care Supplier Safety Act (H.R. 1667), which was endorsed by the AAMC [refer to Washington Highlights, March 12, 2021] and moreover highlighted the necessity for enhanced employment protections for suppliers who hunt down care.
The subcommittee additionally heard from Tawanda Austin, MSN, RN, chief nursing officer at Emory College Hospital Midtown. Austin mirrored upon her personal expertise working as a nurse on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic. Austin famous the “further pressure” that the pandemic has imposed on nurses, reminiscent of “private protecting gear that’s cumbersome to placed on and take off,” the psychological stress of watching one’s sufferers deteriorate, and verbal assaults from sufferers for implementing COVID-19 security protocols.
Austin known as on Congress to extend the well being care workforce by “fund[ing] pathways for extra younger folks to enter the medical and nursing fields.” As well as, Austin shared Ranney’s considerations concerning the affect of vacationers’ positions on the bigger well being care system, asking Congress to “rein within the predatory practices of those [travel-nursing] businesses in order that America’s hospitals stay financially viable.” In late January, almost 200 members of the Home of Representatives, led by Reps. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Griffith, despatched a letter to White Home COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients requesting motion to research the possibly anti-competitive exercise of some nurse staffing businesses [refer to Washington Highlights, Jan. 28].
The subcommittee heard from Laura Riley, MD, obstetrician and gynecologist-in-chief at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Heart and chair of the Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Drugs. In her testimony, Riley famous the depleting affect the pandemic has had on the doctor workforce, notably amongst those that determine as ladies and folks of coloration, who “bear a disproportionate quantity of childcare burdens.” Talking from her personal expertise as an obstetrician-gynecologist, Riley noticed that underneath team-based care supply fashions, “when staffing ranges drop and members of the group are lacking, that may have a damaging affect on affected person care.” To deal with these challenges, Riley beneficial “larger funding in and coaching of well being care professionals and efforts to diversify our well being care workforce,” in addition to prolonged telehealth flexibilities.
Riley concluded by reflecting on the exclusion of pregnant and lactating people from COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutic trials and the way this determination “fueled the proliferation of misinformation on the protection of vaccines in being pregnant.” To deal with this situation, Riley beneficial that federal businesses prioritize the inclusion of pregnant and lactating people in future medical trials.