Massachusetts groups work to solve the shortage of health care workers

Health care leaders are trying to find new ways of retaining and recruiting employees across the field as the workforce shortage, which started in 2020, worsens nationwide. There are no clear solutions to the labor shortage, and in Massachusetts, health professionals say it’s going to take more than one.

In state hospitals alone, around 19,000 acute care positions are unfilled and more than 70% of the average hospital dollar is going toward labor costs — “wages, benefits, and purchased services” — according to an October report from the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association. Travel labor expenses — for out-of-state employees who keep hospitals running — are projected to reach $1 billion, MHA predicts.

The report outlines its own series of potential answers, which includes additional spending and various methods to attract new workers, but solutions will need to extend beyond acute care.

Labor advocates like Marlishia Aho, regional communications manager for 1199SEIU, which represents hundreds of health care employees in the state, said change needs to start with wages.

“It requires all stakeholders to be at the table and again, centering workers’ voices in that discussion,” Aho said. “One of the easiest things we can say is talking about paying people more.”

Health care workers might have been labeled as “heroes” during the pandemic, Aho said, but more action is necessary. In particular, she said, low-wage workers — in-home caretakers and others not necessarily in the hospital setting — need to be remembered, because the entire field is being affected, not just doctors and nurses.