Staffing shortages can be disastrous even at the best of times in all industries. However, the
ever-growing staffing shortages being seen in the health care industry have become concerning
for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, providers and health care workers are being
overworked and overwhelmed with their patient load. This leads to burnout, which has
resulted in plenty of health care workers seeking retirement or employment outside of the
health care industry because their lives are so incredibly hectic and there are many times,
especially of late, where there appears to be no end in sight in terms of work that needs to be
done. This then further contributes to the employee shortages we are seeing, throughout
health care, including schools which would, ideally, infuse the industry with new blood. Second,
there are no real shortages in terms of patient population. Here at Fort Benning, every single
day I see someone requesting a “better” provider because they don’t care for the person they
have been assigned to, asking who the best pediatrician is that is taking new patients, or if
there is a dentist available to see anyone within the next month or so. Third, staffing shortages
make it incredibly difficult to comply with federal regulations in terms of health care and how it
is conducted or performed.
a a Medicare holds long standing regulations regarding what they consider to be an
appropriate length of time for a doctor’s appointment and what they are willing to reimburse a
provider for. This resulted in the advent of the 15-minute appointment. As Medicare is
regulated by the United States federal government, these requirements are law and must be
followed accordingly. According to Pronovost (2016), the truncated appointments arose out of
a need to increase production standards, not to increase access of care to others or improve
the outcomes of patients. This allows medicine under decreased reimbursement to remain
profitable and creates an environment where providers are able to see more patients in a day,
but to the detriment of all involved. Patients feel as though they are rushed through their
appointments, complaints go unaddressed, and experience a decreased in quality and/or
satisfaction (Wellbox, 2016). Providers must frantically move through appointments, trying to
fit in a physical exam, review relevant data from EHRs or charts, and work to ensure labs,
prescriptions, and referrals are established in a timely manner, while still needing to accurately
chart or document the visit (Linzer et al., 2015). This creates a lot of pressure for all involved,
compounded by staffing shortages, which make the struggle even more apparent. Additionally,
when providers attempt to stay within guidelines established by Medicare in terms of the
Annual Wellness Visit (AWV) all Medicare recipients are entitled to, it seems nearly impossible
to stick to both the guidelines and the timeframe (Metrocare Physicians, n.d.). Therefore,
patients will either receive less care than they are entitled to, or providers will spend more
time with their patients, which they would not be reimbursed for.
References
Annual wellness visit (AWV) practice checklist. Metrocare Physicians. (n.d.).
http://www.metrocarephysicians.com/images/AWV_VISIT_WORKFLOW_CHECK_LIST_wit
h_screens.pdf
Evaluating Medicare’s 15-minute doctor’s visits: Time for a change? Wellbox. (2016, September
16). https://wellbox.care/evaluating-medicares-15-minute-doctors-visits-time-for-a-
change/
Linzer, M., Bitton, A., Tu, S. P., Plews-Ogan, M., Horowitz, K. R., Schwartz, M. D., Poplau, S.,
Paranjape, A., Landry, M., Babbott, S., Collins, T., Caudill, T. S., Prasad, A., Adolphe, A.,
Kern, D. E., Aung, K., Bensching, K., & Fairfield, K. (2015). The end of the 15-20 minute
primary care visit. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 30(11), 1584-1586.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-015-3341-3
Pronovost, P. (2016, April 21). The risks of the 15-minute doctor’s appointment. Johns Hopkins
Medicine. https://armstronginstitute.blogs.hopkinsmedicine.org/2016/04/21/the-risks-
of-the-15-minute-doctors-appointment/
