Sep 08, 2024
CHICAGO – Growing imbalance in the supply versus demand for anaesthesia care providers poses difficult challenges for the U.S. health care system. Expert viewpoints on the evolving shortage and potential solutions to meet the need for anaesthesia clinicians are discussed in a special article in the Online First edition of Anaesthesiology, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA).
“The labor supply-demand imbalance for anaesthesia clinicians has reached critical levels, with major implications for safe and effective patient care,” said lead author Amr E. Abouleish, M.D., M.B.A., FASA, professor of anaesthesiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston. “Building on two recent workforce summits held by ASA, our paper outlines emerging trends affecting the unfolding staffing crisis, with a view toward developing much needed sustainable short- and long-term solutions.”
As surgery and other procedures resumed after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, surging demand placed additional stress on “an already fragile workforce.” The percentage of facilities reporting an anaesthesia staffing shortage increased from 35% in early 2020 before the pandemic to 78% in late 2022.
That creates “a dangerous spiral of work intensity and stress, unsustainable workloads, and retirements from clinical practice,” Dr. Abouleish said. While staffing shortages are seen throughout the health care system, “Reliable anaesthesia staffing is essential to provide high-quality, safe, and timely procedural care, which is a major financial driver for health systems.”
The authors outline the converging trends affecting the anaesthesia workforce – including an aging patient population, the ongoing shift toward outpatient and minimally invasive procedures, and the shifting numbers and characteristics of clinicians entering the workforce. Despite a net increase in workforce supply, the growing demand and increasing complexity of procedures continues to strain resources.
Building on discussions at ASA workforce summits held in June 2022 and November 2023, the authors propose potential solutions – short-term and long-term – to the anaesthesia supply-demand imbalance:
“Successfully addressing the workforce imbalance will require reassessment of strategies and the introduction of new ones,” Dr. Abouleish concluded, suggesting that ASA hold annual stakeholder summits to review trends, monitor progress, and modify strategy related to the anaesthesia workforce.
