Bracing for the Wave: a Multi-Institutional Survey Analysis of Inpatient Workforce Adaptations in the First Phase of COVID-19

Background Medical centers across the country have had to rapidly adapt clinician staffing strategies to accommodate large influxes of patients with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Objective We sought to understand the adaptations and staffing strategies that US academic medical centers emp...

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Published inJournal of general internal medicine : JGIM Vol. 36; no. 11; pp. 3456 - 3461
Main Authors Linker, Anne S., Kulkarni, Shradha A., Astik, Gopi J., Keniston, Angela, Sakumoto, Matthew, Eid, Shaker M., Burden, Marisha, Leykum, Luci K.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cham Springer International Publishing 01.11.2021
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Adaptation
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Health care facilities
Internal Medicine
Leadership
Medical personnel
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Original Research
Pandemics
Patients
Polls & surveys
Sustainable practices
Viral diseases
Workforce
Workforce planning
United States > US
COVID-19
workforce planning
implementation science
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Summary:Background Medical centers across the country have had to rapidly adapt clinician staffing strategies to accommodate large influxes of patients with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Objective We sought to understand the adaptations and staffing strategies that US academic medical centers employed in the inpatient setting early in the spread of COVID-19, and to assess whether those changes were sustained during the first phase of the pandemic. Design Cross-sectional survey assessing organization-level, team-level, and clinician-level inpatient workforce adaptations. Participants Hospital medicine leadership at 27 academic medical centers in the USA. Key Results Twenty-seven of 36 centers responded to the survey (75%). Widespread practices included frequent staffing reassessment, organization-level changes such as geographic cohorting and redeployment of non-hospitalists, and exempting high-risk healthcare workers from direct care of patients with COVID-19. Several practices were implemented but discontinued, such as reduction of non-essential services, indicating that they were less sustainable for large centers. Conclusion These findings provide guidance for inpatient leaders seeking to identify sustainable practices for COVID-19 inpatient workforce planning.
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ISSN:0884-8734
1525-1497
DOI:10.1007/s11606-021-06697-6