Hospitals are scrambling to find staff as the pandemic continues. As of Friday, Ohio had almost 4,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations, and 1,000 of the cases are in the ICU, which is adding to employee burnout.
Competition for staff between health care providers is compounding the shortage. John Palmer, with the Ohio Hospital Association, says hospitals are offering a range of financial incentives to attract new employees.
“Hospitals are trying to step up and looking at their benefits packages," Palmer said. "They’re looking at sign-on bonuses. They’re looking at helping with tuition and other incentives in that regard.”
Palmer says the ICU is where they’ve seen the most employee burnout because of COVID-19. He says some hospitals are also offering bonuses to existing employees to keep them from leaving.
