Abstract
The COVID-19 Pandemic and the US Health Care Workforce
Highlights
The forces in play during the COVID-19 pandemic–driven slowdown and recession have affected the demand for health care and, the willingness of hospitals, health care systems, and clinician group practices to continue employing health care workers at prepandemic levels
During the Great Recession, the economic downturn from 2007-2009 that produced the most serious economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the health care sector served as an important stabilizing force to the economy,[1] with employment in health care continuing to grow during that time, at a slower pace than before the economic downturn
During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, use of health care services dropped precipitously, with most health care not directly related to treating patients with COVID-19 shut down, motivated by concern that there might be inadequate surge capability for what was perceived as an unknown future demand for COVID-19-related services
Summary
The forces in play during the COVID-19 pandemic–driven slowdown and recession have affected the demand for health care and, the willingness of hospitals, health care systems, and clinician group practices to continue employing health care workers at prepandemic levels. Jobs in health care have appeared to have been recession-proof. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, use of health care services dropped precipitously, with most health care not directly related to treating patients with COVID-19 shut down, motivated by concern that there might be inadequate surge capability for what was perceived as an unknown future demand for COVID-19-related services.
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