Workforce Challenges
Kentucky hospitals and healthcare systems are facing unprecedented critical workforce shortages, exponential growth in labor costs, and an ongoing need to use travel nurses to help staff their facilities.
Resources
Kentucky’s Critical Health Care Workforce Shortage
Kentucky hospitals and health care systems are facing critical workforce shortages, exponential growth in labor costs, and the possibility of further funding cuts. (2025)
Ensuring Access to Patient Care Whenever You Need It
Too many health care workers are leaving the field and too few are coming to take their place. How can the impending loss of access to patient care be corrected? (2025)
- Kentucky’s Nursing Workforce Crisis (2024)
This one-sheet highlights current workforce challenges facing hospitals, future challenges related to the number of new nurses coming into the profession, and how workforce shortages affect the care of sicker populations. | View Online - Ensuring Access to Patient Care Whenever You Need It (2024) | View Online
- How Increasing Labor Costs Impact Kentuckians’ Access to Care (2022)
Kentucky hospitals are coping with extraordinary expenditures to retain staff and fill vacancies, including premium pay and extremely high-cost contract labor. | View Online