As hospitals across the country are face workforce and patient volume challenges, UVM health network is laying out a plan to address those issues at hospitals in our region. You can find the full outline of the health network’s plan here.”Health care across the country right now is being challenged in virtually every aspect of what we do,” said University of Vermont Health Network CEO John Brumsted. They say staffing shortages and seeing record highs of patients are creating delays in access to care. “Patients that are coming, many of whom have delayed care during the pandemic, so they’re showing up with a lot more acute needs, they’re sicker, and in Vermont we have that on a backdrop of an aging population which does require more care,” Brumsted said.The network is introducing the ‘access action plan’ with three goals; the first is successful hiring. Part of the plan includes bringing on more recruiters, and working to convert travel nurses into permanent employees. Mary Broadworth, vice president of human resources at UVM Medical Center, addressed how much travel nurses make compared to permanent employees in a Tuesday afternoon press conference. She says the delta surge caused travel nurse wages to skyrocket. “We are paying a premium and are paying those teams higher wages because they are travelers and are leaving their families to work in regions that need them. We will continue to look at competitive compensation and benefits for our teams across our union and non-union workers,” Broadworth said.The second goal of the plan is to reduce wait times for specialty care, some plans focus on new or improved technology for things like electronic health records, patient referrals, and telehealth. “Because of the pandemic in 2020, we had over 220,000 telehealth visits which was a phenomenal increase where we had about a thousand the year before. we still have some work to do to improve the technology and make the experience better for patients,” said Brad Krompf, executive director of UVM Health Network Medical Group. The last goal is to improve hospital inpatient and emergency capacity. The plan notes a lack of mental health and long-term care beds in New York and Vermont. “There’s not a time where we’re gonna flip a switch and access is gonna be totally fixed. All of these things will incrementally improve access to care over the coming days, months, and next couple of years,” Brumsted said.
As hospitals across the country are face workforce and patient volume challenges, UVM health network is laying out a plan to address those issues at hospitals in our region.
You can find the full outline of the health network’s plan here.
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“Health care across the country right now is being challenged in virtually every aspect of what we do,” said University of Vermont Health Network CEO John Brumsted.
They say staffing shortages and seeing record highs of patients are creating delays in access to care.
“Patients that are coming, many of whom have delayed care during the pandemic, so they’re showing up with a lot more acute needs, they’re sicker, and in Vermont we have that on a backdrop of an aging population which does require more care,” Brumsted said.
The network is introducing the ‘access action plan’ with three goals; the first is successful hiring. Part of the plan includes bringing on more recruiters, and working to convert travel nurses into permanent employees.
Mary Broadworth, vice president of human resources at UVM Medical Center, addressed how much travel nurses make compared to permanent employees in a Tuesday afternoon press conference.
She says the delta surge caused travel nurse wages to skyrocket.
“We are paying a premium and are paying those teams higher wages because they are travelers and are leaving their families to work in regions that need them. We will continue to look at competitive compensation and benefits for our teams across our union and non-union workers,” Broadworth said.
The second goal of the plan is to reduce wait times for specialty care, some plans focus on new or improved technology for things like electronic health records, patient referrals, and telehealth.
“Because of the pandemic in 2020, we had over 220,000 telehealth visits which was a phenomenal increase where we had about a thousand the year before. we still have some work to do to improve the technology and make the experience better for patients,” said Brad Krompf, executive director of UVM Health Network Medical Group.
The last goal is to improve hospital inpatient and emergency capacity. The plan notes a lack of mental health and long-term care beds in New York and Vermont.
“There’s not a time where we’re gonna flip a switch and access is gonna be totally fixed. All of these things will incrementally improve access to care over the coming days, months, and next couple of years,” Brumsted said.
