https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/gwu-2u030421.php
News Release 4-Mar-2021
Online tool launched today by George Washington University and partners
George Washington University
-Over the next month, 209 U.S. counties in the United States will need to implement crisis workforce strategies to deal with potentially dangerous shortfalls of intensive care unit doctors, according to a new analysis published today. The analysis draws on data from a just launched county-level hospital workforce estimator, one that takes into account the strain on staffing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The shortages could occur just as public health officials warn that variants of the coronavirus are spreading in the United States and could trigger a sharp rise in the number of Americans infected," Clese Erikson, the principal investigator on the project and deputy director of the Health Equity Workforce Research Center at the George Washington University, said. "Our new online estimator will help county and local public health officials project shortages in the near future and take steps to help keep staffing at safe levels."
The analysis shows that ICU doctors in those 209 counties will be taking care of more than 24 severely ill patients at one time. Typically, an ICU doctor will care for half that number of patients or less at the same time--and, at 24 or higher, hospitals will have to quickly organize and train non-ICU providers to step in and help provide care.
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An analysis using data from the County Hospital Workforce Estimator estimates that 7% of all U.S. counties will experience significant strains in their hospital workforce due to longstanding patterns of maldistribution and the added strain of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additionally, the analysis suggests that 12 U.S. counties will need to put in place contingency strategies within the next month in order to cope with a surge in severely ill patients, including those with new variants of COVID-19.
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