CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Hospital Association President and CEO Jim Kaufman said the state has seen an increase in more EMS providers due to statewide efforts to fill staffing shortages.
“This is really a testament to the governor’s efforts and the Legislature’s efforts to put a greater investment into that pipeline. Now, we have to make sure we’re working to keep those young healthcare professionals whether it’s EMS, doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists here in the Mountain State,” Kaufman said on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
Kaufman spoke about the state of the industry in recognition of National Hospital Week.
WVHA plans to hold a kick-off event with a “Cooking for Life” class in coordination with Mountain Health Network at 4:30 p.m. Monday at Huntington’s Kitchen in Huntington. The event is meant to help cancer patients learn how to eat better.
“These are a lot of efforts that hospitals are doing all across the state to improve the health of their community to make their community stronger,” Kaufman said.
Kaufman said the statewide average cost of governmental programs like Medicare, Medicaid and PEIA is 75 percent when the national average is 45 percent.
“We have less resources here in the Mountain State to compete on salary than other providers in other states, so that’s one of the areas we need to focus on is closing that gap,” he said.
On the COVID-19 front, Kaufman said they are still working to increase the number of nurses being trained.
“I think as COVID is waning, you’re seeing less demand across the country to deal with those huge surges; however, there is still more than 200,000 vacant nurses positions nationwide,” he said.
The staffing shortage doesn’t only involve nurses and doctors, Kaufman said.
“It really is a team sport. Those 49,000 hospital employees — everything from nutritional services, environmental services — doctors and nurses do everything to take care of our communities, but there is a lot that goes on outside of the hospital that people don’t realize,” he said.
Kaufman said a lot of their prevention efforts happen in the community.
“People often think about the 16,000 newborn deliveries that we do or the 6.6 million outpatient visits and emergency room visits, but they don’t see what’s going out on in the community whether it’s a health screening for breast cancer or prostate cancer, diabetes, education and awareness,” he said.
National Hospital Week runs through Saturday.