Surgeon General Issues Landmark Report with New Solutions to Combat Crippling Worker Burnout Issue

Fierce Healthcare | By Robert King
 
Healthcare worker burnout was a staggering issue for systems across the country even before the pandemic, and, now, a new report from the U.S. surgeon general hopes to help by boosting benefits and reducing administrative burdens. 

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, M.D., released a general advisory Monday surrounding worker burnout, an issue that was present before the pandemic but only worsened as COVID-19 has impacted systems. Murthy is pressing for collaboration among regulators, health systems, communities and other key stakeholders to take a “whole-of-society” approach to the problem.

“COVID-19 has been a uniquely traumatic experience for the healthcare workforce and for their families, pushing them past their breaking point,” Murthy said in a statement. “Now, we owe them a debt of gratitude and action. And if we fail to act, we will place our nation’s health at risk.”

Murthy’s advisory lays out a series of recommendations to combat burnout, which is likely to get worse with more than half a million registered nurses retiring by the end of the year and a shortage of more than 3 million low-wage health workers projected over the next five years. The Association of American Medical Colleges has also projected a shortage of 139,000 physicians by 2033.

[Click to read the recommendations], which come roughly a month after a new survey from the union National Nurses United showed major spikes in workplace violence at systems across the country.

The surgeon general advisories do not have any binding actions but are an attempt to call attention to a public health issue. 

Prioritizing Mental Health Care In America

NIHCM Foundation

By the end of 2021, Americans found themselves in one of the worst nationwide mental health crises in years. Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. adults experience a mental illness each year, or more than 50 million people. Unfortunately, less than half of the people in need ever receive the mental health care they require. Due to physician burnout, a workforce shortage, and poor funding, this country has long struggled with handling the growing mental health crisis and providing equitable access to behavioral health care. The mental health system in America may be largely broken, but conditions are ideal for transforming the system with scientific advances, improved coverage, and political consensus on the importance of mental health. Goals once thought to be long out of reach may soon be possible.

This infographic highlights the many challenges contributing to America’s mental health crisis as well as steps to improve and strengthen mental health care and the behavioral health industry and promote individual resiliency. 

This infographic highlights the many challenges contributing to America’s mental health crisis as well as steps to improve and strengthen mental health care and the behavioral health industry and promote individual resiliency. 

The attached infographic highlights the many challenges contributing to America’s mental health crisis as well as steps to improve and strengthen mental health care and the behavioral health industry and promote individual resiliency.

See Infographic 

Home Health Providers’ Referral Acceptance Rate Has Decreased by 15%

Home Health Care News / By Joyce Famakinwa
 
Patients being discharged from hospitals and into the post-acute space, including to home health providers, tend to be higher acuity and more complex than in the past.
 
The findings are part of a new report from CarePort, a WellSky company. The report examines data from over 1,000 hospitals and 130,000 post-acute care providers and focuses on how the COVID-19 emergency has impacted care delivery.
 
In general, patients discharged to home health providers have more complex conditions than in 2019. As a result, there’s been an 11% increase in average comorbidity score. Some common comorbidities are congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, neurological disorders and diabetes.
 
“On average, higher acuity patients have a greater need for services post-discharge, adding increased complexity to getting that patient the care they need,” Dr. Lissy Hu, CEO and founder of CarePort, said in a press statement. “Giving providers the visibility and insight needed to provide the appropriate level of care post-discharge is critical to ensuring the best possible outcome.”
 
In recent years, some providers have positioned themselves to be able to take on higher acute and more complex patients.
 
Alivia Care — a provider of home health, hospice and palliative care services that operates across 32 counties in North Florida and Southeast Georgia — is one such company.
 
“We really wanted to be able to look at specific patient populations and what they needed that was different from the core components of service,” Susan Ponder-Stansel, CEO of Alivia Care, previously told Home Health Care News.
 
Other larger home health companies have done the same. LHC Group Inc. (Nasdaq: LHCG) has touted its own SNF-at-home capabilities, for instance. Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) acquired Contessa Health, which specifically deals with higher-acuity patients in the home.
 
Aside from higher acuity patients being discharged to home health, the report also found that staffing shortages have been disruptive to the referral process. Despite a 33% increase in referrals per patient to home health providers, there’s been a 15% decrease in acceptance.

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‘That’s Just Part of Aging’: Long Covid Symptoms Are Often Overlooked in Seniors

Kaiser Health News

Nearly 18 months after getting covid-19 and spending weeks in the hospital, Terry Bell struggles with hanging up his shirts and pants after doing the laundry.

About ‘Navigating Aging’
Navigating Aging focuses on medical issues and advice associated with aging and end-of-life care, helping America’s 45 million seniors and their families navigate the health care system.

To contact Judith Graham with a question or comment, click here.

Lifting his clothes, raising his arms, arranging items in his closet leave Bell short of breath and often trigger severe fatigue. He walks with a cane, only short distances. He’s 50 pounds lighter than when the virus struck.

Bell, 70, is among millions of older adults who have grappled with long covid — a population that has received little attention even though research suggests seniors are more likely to develop the poorly understood condition than younger or middle-aged adults.

Long covid refers to ongoing or new health problems that occur at least four weeks after a covid infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Much about the condition is baffling: There is no diagnostic test to confirm it, no standard definition of the ailment, and no way to predict who will be affected. Common symptoms, which can last months or years, include fatigue, shortness of breath, an elevated heart rate, muscle and joint pain, sleep disruptions, and problems with attention, concentration, language, and memory — a set of difficulties known as brain fog.

Ongoing inflammation or a dysfunctional immune response may be responsible, along with reservoirs of the virus that remain in the body, small blood clots, or residual damage to the heart, lungs, vascular system, brain, kidneys, or other organs.

Only now is the impact on older adults beginning to be documented. In the largest study of its kind, published recently in the journal BMJ, researchers estimated that 32% of older adults in the U.S. who survived covid infections had symptoms of long covid up to four months after infection — more than double the 14% rate an earlier study found in adults ages 18 to 64. (Other studies suggest symptoms can last much longer, for a year or more.)

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