America’s Health Care Workforce Crisis Is a Patient Care Crisis

Three out of four clinicians say they can’t deliver the care they want to provide. That’s not just a staffing problem—it’s a patient care crisis.

My organization surveyed over 1,300 clinicians and 160 health care executives, and the findings reveal the extent of the problem at hand. Our polling indicates that half of health care executives have reduced their capacity to serve patients—fewer appointments, shorter hours, closed beds—because of their challenges finding workers. And while employers post thousands of health care jobs each month, there are not enough health care workers to fill them.

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On the one hand, health systems that can’t find the qualified professionals they need. Meanwhile, there are many Americans eager to fill those roles but hitting barriers at every turn. What the research makes clear is that this gap impacts us all. 

The health care workforce gap

The health care workforce gap impacts communities everywhere, but rural communities face catastrophic shortages. Our research suggests that 85% of rural health care executives say they cannot find enough local talent—nearly double the 45% reported in major metropolitan areas.

Behind these numbers are real consequences: the specialist position that stays empty for months, the family practice that stops taking new patients, the mental health clinic where wait times stretch from weeks to months.

Even facilities that have staff face the risk of them leaving. Despite high workplace satisfaction—72% to 89% across different roles—15% of physicians and 13% of nurses say they’ll likely leave in the next year. 

So how do you solve a crisis this severe? The instinct is to compete harder for existing talent. But that approach has limits.

Why traditional solutions aren’t working

In order to compete for workers, hospitals and health systems are raising salaries dramatically. Our research indicates that advertised positions in the health care industry pay 48% more than the median income of current workers—yet vacancies persist. This isn’t a compensation problem; it’s a supply problem.

Executives recognize what works. Sixty-nine percent tell us that partnerships with educators are the most effective solution—better than bonuses, better than job boards, better than staffing agencies. Yet only 22% actually invest in them.

Many point to artificial intelligence as the solution. I see it differently. Our research shows that while 76% of executives say AI improves care quality, only 65% believe it can solve staffing shortages. AI doesn’t reduce the need for clinicians; it creates more moments where skilled judgment matters.

I believe that while technology can handle documentation and routine tasks, professionals are always needed to handle complex cases, difficult family conversations, and situations where experience makes the difference. While AI may be able to help enhance the effectiveness of every individual clinician, it does not address the fundamental need for adequate staffing levels.

The path forward requires rethinking how we prepare professionals in the first place.

The path forward

Solving a worker supply crisis requires expanding the pipeline, not competing for the same limited pool of graduates. That means fundamentally rethinking how we prepare health care professionals.

First, we must build education capacity where the need is documented. Traditional academic institutions weren’t built to respond to workforce crises. They serve critical purposes. But rapid capacity expansion in response to documented shortages? That’s not what they do. We need education platforms designed specifically to scale when workforce gaps emerge.

Second, we must build direct partnerships between health systems and educators. When students train in the facilities where they’ll work, using the equipment they’ll use as professionals, they graduate day-one ready with positions often secured. These partnerships work because they’re built around real workforce needs, not academic calendars.

Third, we must design pathways for the students we actually have, not the ones we wish we had. The professionals we need aren’t always 22-year-olds fresh from undergraduate programs. They’re career changers, working parents, military veterans—people who bring the maturity and perspective health care needs but require flexible pathways. When we design education for traditional students only, we exclude the very people our communities need most.

When hospitals cannot provide high-quality care and when the gap between open positions and available workers continues to widen, we must face the crisis head-on.

Not someday. Now.