News: CEOs ranked workforce challenges as top concern of 2022 in new survey

According to an annual survey conducted by the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), workforce challenges ranked number one on the list of hospital CEO top concerns in 2022. Shortages in the healthcare workforce became a large problem for the clinical operations at health systems, hospitals, and physician practices. Healthcare organizations across the United States are facing workforce shortages with nurses, physicians, and many other clinical roles  like technicians, HealthLeaders reported.

The ACHE survey asked 1,300 of its community hospital CEOs and nearly 300 executives to rank their top 11 concerns, as well as identify specific areas of concern within those issues. For the second year in a row, workforce or personnel challenges has been ranked as the top issue, surpassing financial challenges which ranked first in the survey for 16 consecutive years prior to 2021.

The top five concerns identified by hospital CEOs were:

• Workforce challenges such as personnel shortages
• Financial challenges
• Behavioral health and addiction issues
• Patient safety and quality
• Government mandates

The top five specific concerns under workforce were:

• Shortages of registered nurses
• Shortages of technicians
• Burnout among non-physician staff
• Shortages of therapists
• Shortages of physician specialists

Hospitals should pursue both long-term and short-term initiatives to continue providing care for their patients, said Deborah Bowen, president and CEO of the ACHE in a prepared statement. “Longer-term solutions include strengthening the workforce pipeline through creative partnerships, such as those with colleges to grow the number of nurses and technicians,” she suggested. “More immediate solutions include supporting and developing all staff, building staff resilience, organizing services to reflect the realities of the labor market, and exploring alternative models of care.”

Editor’s note: To read HealthLeaders’ coverage of this story, click here. For the full results of the ACHE survey, click here.