A story entitled "Recession Now Hits Jobs in Health Care" was in the Wall Street Journal recently.
Other stories in the news have discussed closing hospitals, including the possibilty of Shriners hospitals closing.
My institution was mentioned in the WSJ article and some of the effects and measures taken recently.
Among them, despite a recent nearly 4% raise for allied health staff, news that recent job offers would be rescinded as well as tightening in other areas and expenses based on expected patient visits, census and revenues.
As part of the budget adjustments, trip time and travel expenses have been parred-back a little for physicians and res. It is still a generous budget and certainly not complaining, particularly when colleagues at other large medical centers are also feeling the squeeze (some of whom have lost what minimal meeting time and budgets they had to begin with).
It is likely if you are in health care or a related industry right now the recession has or will impact you until we can leverage some of the administration's goals and funding designated for health care and the economy as a whole.
Physician-writer Rahul Parikh's take on the economy is an entertaining one — What if the economy was the patient, and how is it reacting to interventions meant to improve its prognosis?
Whether the "patient" will fully recover remains to be seen…
