现场圆桌会议讨论农村医疗危机

十大网赌平台推荐健康公司首席执行官兼总裁乔安妮. Conroy, MD, 加入了MaineHealth首席执行官安德鲁·穆勒, MD, and The University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN) President and CEO Sunny Eappen, MD, MBA in a roundtable discussion about the extreme crisis in rural healthcare on Monday, May 22, 2023.

The roundtable was live-streamed on YouTube from Dartmouth Health's 十大网赌平台推荐希区柯克医疗中心. 录音可以在 十大网赌平台推荐健康YouTube频道. This content is cleared for use by media outlets on all broadcast and digital platforms.

"Seventy percent of hospitals nationwide were in the red in 2022, so we're not alone. In rural America, 挑战更加难以驾驭, 特别是在我们系统所在的新英格兰地区, 并且没有像该国其他地区那样在covid后反弹," said Conroy. "Although the [federal] provider relief funds were crucial and allowed our hospitals and rural hospitals to recover, 经济复苏后，我们同时面临着许多挑战, 主要原因是医疗保健人员持续短缺, 影响我们每个机构的因素是什么."

Conroy said labor costs continue to escalate primarily because organizations must pay premiums either for their own employees to work overtime to cover gaps, or they must pay contract labor – commonly referred to as ‘travelers' – often more than three times the rate that their own employees are paid. 这可能会导致员工的不满和流失.

The leaders of the largest healthcare systems in northern New England and the North Country of New York discussed what it means to be an academic health system, the workforce challenges, including recruitment, housing and childcare, as well as payer, 监管和通胀挑战, 以及保持和改善获得高质量医疗服务的创新.

“讨论我们作为农村卫生系统面临的共同挑战非常重要, and by working together I am certain that we can preserve and improve access to high-quality care for patients in our region," said Sunny Eappen, MD, MBA, UVM健康网络总裁兼首席执行官. "I do see a bright light in the face of this turmoil: We have an opportunity now to make truly positive lasting change while we chart a path forward. 这意味着我们在部署人才方面要有创意, allowing our physicians, nurses, and all of our staff to work at their highest level; advancing telehealth in new, efficient and exciting ways that make scheduling appointments and getting answers easier for patients and providers; and leading the way as diverse, 公平和充满活力的组织. Of course to do all this, 我们需要联邦政府和州政府的支持, and we will need commercial payers to reimburse us at levels that allow us to continue providing care to their members, who are our patients."

作为学术医疗中心, 十大网赌平台推荐希区柯克医疗中心, Maine Medical Center and University of Vermont Medical Center are crucial 'safety nets' for New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. While smaller critical access hospitals may close beds due to staffing challenges, the academic medical centers must keep beds open for the sickest and neediest patients that cannot be cared for in smaller facilities. The leaders agreed that labor costs have increased 12-15 percent post-pandemic, and these are costs that they are unable to pass along to consumers or insurance companies, 这给他们的系统造成了巨大的财政缺口.

“我们是本州最大的私营雇主. 就创造就业机会的能力而言，我们对经济有很大的影响, to give people good pay, 并真正帮助刺激我们所服务的州的经济," said Andrew Mueller, MD, Chief Executive Officer, MaineHealth. “如果我们受到影响，我们不得不减少服务, not only do we run the risk of individuals being harmed by failure to access care, we also run the risk of really damaging some of our rural communities economically and socially."

Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) President Bill Hoagland moderated the discussion and shared, “虽然我在华盛顿工作, DC, 我的心脏和家族农场都在印第安纳州, 所以我对美国农村面临的挑战有很好的感觉. Rural healthcare delivery is a critically important conversation to have here in New England and across the country, right now, before it's too late."

圆桌会议的目的是强调关键问题, build awareness of the problems rural healthcare providers face across the country, discuss possible solutions, 并提请人们注意这样一个事实，即像十大网赌平台推荐健康中心这样的卫生系统, UVMHN和MaineHealth不能单独解决这些问题.