SHM Supports the Reintroduction of the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act
April 05, 2021
SHM's Policy Efforts
SHM supports legislation that affects hospital medicine and general healthcare, advocating for hospitalists and the patients they serve.
The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), representing the nation’s hospitalists, is pleased to support the reintroduction of the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act (H.R. 2255). This bipartisan legislation will recapture 40,000 unused employment-based visas and use them to expedite processing for immigrant doctors and nurses. Converting these visas will alleviate health care staffing shortages and ensure patients across the country have access to high-quality medical care.
Hospitalists focus on the general medical care of hospitalized patients in America’s acute care hospitals. As a result, our members are on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic caring for patients each day. Many hospitalists are highly trained immigrant physicians who are essential members of the hospital medicine team. Their skills, expertise, and compassion are needed throughout the country to continue the fight against COVID-19 and ensure communities maintain access to lifesaving care.
In light of COVID-19 and to begin to address the pre-existing shortage of physicians nationwide, we must utilize all tools necessary to expand the healthcare provider workforce. This legislation will ensure visas for medical workers are processed in a timely manner, alleviate some of the green card backlog for physicians and nurses, and ultimately expand the available healthcare workforce. Importantly, this legislation will also protect families by allowing spouses and children to join healthcare workers in the United States.
As the United States continues to face unprecedented challenges from COVID-19, this legislation will help alleviate unnecessary obstacles that are preventing highly-trained hospitalists from engaging in the fight against COVID-19 and helping the nation recover. SHM is pleased to offer our support of the reintroduction of the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act and stands ready to support its passage. Thank you for your leadership on this important issue.
Sincerely,
Danielle Scheurer, MD, MSCR, SFHM
President, Society of Hospital Medicine