Health Worker Shortage Leads To Staffing Emergency

Nebraska’s hospitals are even more crowded now than they were at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in November. That prompted Gov. Pete Ricketts to announce a “staffing emergency” Thursday to try to address a severe shortage of health care workers. The state’s hospitals were treating a 3,162 patients as of Wednesday, up from 3,074 on Nov. 20, when the number of known cases was at its all-time high. Most of the recent hospitalizations aren’t virus-related, however. Ricketts says the increase was driven by patients seeking treatment for other medical problems.