West Virginia hospitals warn of persistent staffing gaps despite recent pipeline gains

Jim Kaufman, president and CEO of the West Virginia Hospital Association, told the Senate Workforce Committee on Feb. 13 that hospitals across West Virginia are facing persistent workforce shortages that affect both clinical and nonclinical roles.

The association represents 72 hospitals across the state, Kaufman said, and hospitals directly employ about 53,000 people. He told the committee that hospitals are currently staffing roughly 75% of their licensed inpatient beds because of staffing shortages rather than lack of demand. "It's literally a staffing challenge," Kaufman said.

Kaufman said the shortage is broad, not limited to nurses, and includes environmental services, respiratory therapists, laboratory and radiology staff and many other roles. He cited association-collected, twice-yearly data showing vacancy rates for key hospital positions in the 10%–15% range and nursing vacancy rates that fell from about 19% in 2022 to about 15% today. Turnover rates, Kaufman said, have improved from roughly 24% to…