Adequacy of workforce – are there enough critical care doctors in the US-post COVID?

This article explores the ability of American healthcare to adapt to this challenge. Recent findings With the COVID-19 pandemic, intensivists, and ventilators have been identified as the most critical components leading to shortages in ICU capacity. Anesthesiologists play a unique role in being able to provide ‘flex capacity’ with critical care staffing, space, and equipment (post-anesthesia care units, operating rooms, and ventilators). With the advent of APPs, intensive care physician staffing ratios may potentially be increased to cover patients safely in a physician-led team model. Tele-medicine expands this further and can allow hospital coordination for optimizing ICU bed use. Summary Although intensivists have been able to take care of the increased ICU caseload during the COVID-19 pandemic through recruiting other specialties, the question of what is the appropriate staffing model for the future is yet to be elucidated. Creating stronger multidisciplinary care teams that have the capacity to flex up critical care capacity may be the most prudent longer-term solution.
Source: Current Opinion in Anaesthesiology - Category: Anesthesiology Tags: ETHICS, ECONOMICS AND OUTCOME: Edited by Alice A. Tolbert Coombs Source Type: research