By Matt Grimshaw, Market President for Saint Joseph Health
You’ve seen the headlines and probably have experienced it yourself: There is a critical nursing shortage in the United States. Projections indicate the need for more than 1 million additional nurses by 2030.
In Kentucky, by that time, nearly 25% of all psychiatric nurses and more than 19% of all OR nurses will have retired. We already have a 23 percent national vacancy for RNs in medical/surgical units vacant. In addition, Kentucky hospitals face nearly 13,000 total non-physician staff vacancies with nurses making up a significant portion of this gap.
Even with those large workforce gaps, Saint Joseph Health is fully staffed with nurses working at normal wages in our London, Berea, Mount Sterling and Bardstown hospitals, as well as our ambulatory care facility and emergency department in Jessamine County.
In contrast, to fill the need in Lexington, we have 100 nurses who are float pool nurses. They are transient rather than permanently assigned to one place. Lexington is the only community we serve that cannot fill all its positions with permanent nurses.
Nursing candidates are choosing to move to, and work in, those communities rather than Lexington because of housing costs that are up to 30 percent lower. This is a crisis not just for hospitals and not even just for health care. It’s a crisis for all of us.
The National League of Cities states: “Cities are competing for talent, investment and business growth — but without affordable, healthy and safe housing, the workforce foundation crumbles. Housing is not just a social issue, it’s an economic necessity to ensure workers can work, businesses can thrive and communities remain strong.”
Eric Ford, the editor for the Journal of Healthcare Management, wrote: “The housing crisis is not just a societal issue—it’s a healthcare sustainability issue. From urban centers to rural towns, the stability of our healthcare systems depends on ensuring that those who care for our communities have a place to call home. Healthcare executives must recognize the critical link between housing and workforce stability. Whether partnering with local governments to develop housing projects in cities or investing directly in infrastructure for rural facilities, these initiatives must be viewed as part of the healthcare system’s broader mission to promote community well-being.”
Hospitals are open 24/7. Our patient-centered employees can’t work remotely if the weather is bad, so when workers have long commutes, it further impedes their ability to get to work every day.
As a result, healthcare facilities will move to the periphery of the county to be closer to workers, or they will build outside Lexington because that is where organizations can staff them.
Education and health care are the backbone of our community. If we want world class of both, we have to figure out how to get more housing that is affordable for the workforce.
Here are a few ideas to reverse this troubling trend:
- Build housing specifically for essential workers: In North Dakota, housing was built specifically for health care, education, government and public safety workers. Seed money was provided for developments that had a rent/income component so developers or employers could build housing that their workers could afford. CHI St. Alexius Health invested $15 million, and the state put in $1.5 million. As an employer, we guaranteed a certain number of apartments would be filled, and those designated apartments had to follow the rules for rental prices.
- Create a TIF district for housing: A tax increment financing (TIF) district could help pay for land costs and infrastructure on developments to reduce costs.
- Build along the corridors: The city could help create an incentive program for building housing along the corridors, which would make it in close proximity to jobs and public transportation while relieving the burden of putting all the density in neighborhoods.
If we want to live, work and do life together, we must solve the problem of the lack of affordable housing for essential service workers. Amenities and quality of life are important, but if a community is not affordable, people will make the decision to live elsewhere.
Matt Grimshaw is Market President for Saint Joseph Health, the Kentucky market for CommonSpirit Health.