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Physicians See Increased Medical Errors Due to Staff Shortages

medical errors

Survey Healthcare Global, a subsidiary of Apollo Intelligence, a data collection service for health care market research, released a new report showing that 34 percent of physicians in six developed countries said they have observed an increase in medical errors as a result of staff shortages.1

Shortage of Health Care Professionals Affecting Physicians’ Mental Health

Survey Healthcare Global collected data from Feb. 14-16, 2022 from physicians in six developed countries that were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The countries included the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.2

The survey respondents were physicians that represented five specialties, which include family medicine/general practice, emergency medicine, pediatrics, intensive/critical care, and surgery.3

The survey revealed that 65 percent of physicians reported feeling frustrated, 54 percent had burnout and 52 percent felt unappreciated in the past three months. Over 50 percent of the physicians were experiencing chronic stress and have considered leaving their profession in the past three months.4 Eighteen percent of physicians said that they are more likely to drink, smoke, or use/abuse substances as a result of the chronic stress experienced at work.

Although a significant number of physicians expressed experiencing chronic work place stress and burnt out, nearly 75 percent said their organizations do not offer any wellness resources and programs to HCP employees.5 Dr. Jessi Gold, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis said:

Health care workers are not people who had good mental health before COVID. It’s not like COVID came and all of a sudden we’re having problems. We had longstanding problems.6

Physicians Report Patient Care Compromised Due to Inadequate Staffing

The report showed that 80 percent of physician respondents said that staffing problems are leading to longer patient wait times, and 69 percent said that healthcare professional shortages are resulting in poor quality patient care.7 Seventy two percent of respondents said that their patients have experienced delayed access to treatments, 71 percent said their patients experienced delays in routine care, and 59 percent said their patients experienced delays in surgeries. The physicians’ added that delays in treatments, routine care and surgeries have adversely impacted patients’ health and increased levels of suffering.8

Daniel S. Fitzgerald, CEO of Apollo Intelligence, said:

When physicians voice such strong concern about medical errors and the quality of patient care, healthcare leaders must take notice and redouble efforts to address the root causes of the staffing shortage. Apollo has been closely tracking physician stresses and experience from the onset of the pandemic, and we’ll continue to report key learnings on this important issue.9

Health Care Staff Shortages A Problem in U.S. Before the COVID Pandemic

The United States was experiencing a shortage of health care professionals prior to the COVID pandemic. According to the American Medical Association, in 2019, the U.S. had 20,000 fewer doctors than required to meet the country’s health care needs. There is a nursing shortage as well and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that every year through 2030, there will be approximately 195,000 vacancies for registered nurses.10

The COVID pandemic worsened the health care professional shortage. Almost 20 percent of healthcare professionals resigned from their jobs during the COVID pandemic, while another 12 percent were laid off. Of those health care professionals who remained in their jobs during the pandemic, 31 percent have considered resigning.11

Dharam Kaushik, MD, a urologist at the University of Texas Health in San Antonio said:

You have physicians, you have nurses, dropping out, retiring early, leaving practice, changing jobs. You’re experiencing loss of manpower in a field that was already short on manpower before the pandemic hit.12

Health Care Professionals Continue to Get Fired for Opposing COVID Vaccine Mandates

In spite of the health care professional shortage in the U.S., hundreds of health care professionals have been terminated or suspended from their jobs for refusing to get COVID vaccinations.13 Becker’s Hospital Review has complied a selected list of 55 health systems that have terminated health care professionals for non-compliance with COVID vaccine mandates, which can be found here.


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6 Responses

  1. No surprise. Over 1 million people are being murdered every year due to poison big pharma drugs, opiates, medical errors and mistakes and now mRNA injections.

  2. My neighbor was almost killed by her Dr. who over prescribed Opioids after leg surgery. Luckily the daughter found her mother in a vegetative state and called 911…..they saved her. When the neighbors husband showed me……what the Dr. had prescribed…I was literally in shock…….I know who this Dr. is. She was a Cancer Surgeon Dr. – and not known for this kind of Prescribing previously. Unfortunately …..people do Not question their Dr.’s on anything…….because they are Intimidated and threatened if they do. People do Not be afraid to question anything……it is your Right. I know……been in that position…but won my case against the Hospital by going to the CEO……..and having all notes I kept while in the hospital. People …….Keep NOTES on EVERYTHING.

  3. There is no health care shortage. There are more than enough nurses to fill all open positions. The problem is nursing retention. Hospitals are not paying their staff enough to cover the consistently high-stress levels nurses are asked to work at. This was happening pre-pandemic, the pandemic exacerbated the problem.

    -A nurse who was fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.

    https://www.cutoffattheknees.com/there-is-no-nursing-shortage-the-problem-is-nursing-retention/

  4. Someone we know of just died from sepsis after an operation, another person who got a brain aneurism was shuffled out of the hospital faster than usual (sorry, step down unit’s full, see ya later!) because of too many PATIENTS. So, the ‘shot’ is also helping to cause med errors too, not just a staffing problem, it’s the influx of way to many people who got the shot and now got the side effects.

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