Kmm1 Task 3 - Grade: B PDF

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A. Trends A major trend that is observed in healthcare currently is the use of agency staffing. Due to the big salaries and benefits that are offered, many people leaving and joining a traveling agency. This is causing huge staff shortages among the hospitals all across America. Another trend that is appearing is supply chain’s inability to supply medical supplied and keeping with the demand. This trend started with Covid-19 and has yet to come back up. 1. Impact The effect of agency staffing on the hospital in question would have a huge effect on the 3 new service lines. This is due to the fact that staffing shortages are every and will impact the operations of the hospital. In order for the service lines to be operational, they will need adequate staffing. If this problem is not fixed then the service lines will only be setting itself up for failure. Furthermore, if the hospital is currently using agency staff, then this will severely have an effect on the bottom line and can jeopardize the funds necessary to open a new line. The costs of agency staffing are between 100-300/hour with the staff signing for a minimum of 3 months. This rate is a really inflated cost to the hospital. Hospitals are trying to compete with this pay but are incapable with keeping up with the rising rates. Until the staffing crisis is taken care of the healthcare system is in a bad position. The supply chain shortage trend has had a horrible effect on healthcare. This trend began in 2020 because of COVID, and it has not yet recovered. Items such as testing reagents, ventilators, gowns, and gowns, are on a huge back order. Due to this reason, it can delay the new service lines due to them not having enough supplies to treat their patients. Some of the items that are necessary are on backorder for months. It will not be good for Trinity Hospital to open their new service lines, only to stop treating and testing patients due to no supplies. Furthermore, because of the shortage the costs of supplies have increased greatly. This affects the hospitals bottom line. For example, a case of gloves pre-Covid cost around $66 and is now $220. Many hospitals did not see this in advanced and did not budget for the price increase. They do not have the option to not use these items.

Legislation that develops in response to these trends would be very good for the healthcare industry. There should be more legislation in place in regards to licensing of professionals in the medical industry in more states. It should also be made more difficult to get a license in the states that already require a license. If licensing is stricter then it will make it more difficult for agency staffing to be able to move around the country. Which will make the return on investment for them lower. The legislations should cap the inflated hourly rate of the agency staff. Hospitals cannot operate without staff in place, but they can also not afford to operate by employing the agency staff for long periods of time. This is partly because of how reimbursement is decreasing every year. Furthermore, there should be more legislation and monitoring on price gauging. Consumers are told to report price gauging but it is rarely heard of any action based on the reporting. How is it possible that the gloves increasing in price exponentially in such a short amount of time not be price gauging. A legislation to fix this would be to set a percentage number on how much certain medical items can increase in costs in a period of time. These items are necessary items to

provide care for the patients. These pricing should be monitored to make sure they are affordable for the healthcare facilities....