Dauphin County Commissioner George P. Hartwick, III, left, and Dr. Latika Davis-Jones, Secretary of the PA Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs | DauphinCounty.gov / PA.gov
Dauphin County Commissioner George P. Hartwick, III, left, and Dr. Latika Davis-Jones, Secretary of the PA Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs | DauphinCounty.gov / PA.gov
The ability to treat and serve Dauphin County residents affected by the rising use of opioid drugs is being impacted by a healthcare worker shortage in Pennsylvania.
The county had 5,920 residents with an opioid drug use disorder in the year 2020, reported Dauphin News.
Statewide, opioid drug use disorders in Pennsylvania increased from 295,000 in 2016 to 316,000 in 2019.
The state's Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP), provides funding to 47 county-level "Single County Authorities (SCAs)", which coordinate local behavioral treatment and recovery services.
Dauphin County's SCA is the Dauphin County Department of Drug and Alcohol Services, a county governmental entity that provides treatment, prevention, or intervention services to the county's adolescents and adults. Dauphin County Commissioner George P. Hartwick, III has primary oversight over this department.
The county's website also lists 47 drug and alcohol treatment providers that service Dauphin County. Seventeen of those providers are members of either the Pyramid Healthcare, Inc. or White Deer Run Treatment networks, two Blair County affiliates of which were visited in April by DDAP Secretary Dr. Latika Davis-Jones.
Her visit was part of a statewide tour to highlight statewide drug treatment programs, and how Pennsylvania's healthcare worker shortage is impacting those programs.
Due to Pennsylvania's healthcare worker shortage, 63 of the state’s 67 counties considered a partially or primary care health professional shortage area (HPSA), according to a 2021 report by MarshMcLennan.
When it comes to behavioral and mental health, 53 of Pennsylvania's counties are considered mental health HPSAs.
Eighty-four percent of respondents in a September 2023 survey of the state’s substance use disorder (SUD) workforce said that the current workforce shortage is a "moderate to serious problem" for their organizations. That survey, conducted by DDAP, also found that the average job vacancy rate at these organizations was 18%.
This workforce shortage comes as opioid-related deaths rose sharply in Pennsylvania between 2010 and 2019. The rate of deaths nearly quintipled from 5 deaths per 100,000 people in 2010 to 23.7 deaths per in 2019, wrote Penn State University geographer and demographer Louisa Holmes in a May 11, 2023 GoErie op-ed.
Those numbers then rose to 42.5 opioid-related deaths per 100,000 people in 2020.
DDAP's survey identified several causes of the workforce shortage, including the number of applicants and compensation issues.
The head of the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) also told Keystone Today that the state's lawsuit climate also impacts the ability to recruit and retain healthcare workers.
"Escalation of medical liability can lead to an access to care crisis by driving doctors away from the state due to mounting costs,” said ATRA President Tiger Joyce.
Kentucky, facing a similar healthcare workforce shortage, recently passed the country's first-ever law decriminalizing medical errors by healthcare providers, except in cases of gross negligence or misconduct.
Curt Schroder, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Civil Justice Reform (PCCJR), said he would support similar legislation in Pennsylvania.
“Criminalization should be limited only to areas where intentional harm to a patient is committed,” Schroder told the Pennsylvania Record. “Errors, while very unfortunate, should not be treated as criminal acts.”
“PCCJR would oppose any attempt to further deal with medical errors through additional criminalization of unintentional behavior,” Schroder said.
Schroder specifically referenced the workforce shortage in rural Pennsylvania, saying, "Rural hospitals already face greater difficulties recruiting providers than their suburban and urban peers and, now, they must also cover urban-size risk factors to retain them."
As the number of opioid drug disorders increases in Dauphin County, the healthcare worker shortage impacts the ability for local treatment centers to service these residents.
Secretary Davis-Jones is promoting the state's healthcare worker student loan repayment program during her statewide tour of treatment centers but, for now, Schroder said there is no movement on a bill to decriminalize medical errors and, with Pennsylvania ranked as ATRA's "#1 Judicial Hellhole," medical lawsuit reform appears unlikely anytime soon.
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How many opioid drug use disorders were in each Pennsylvania county in 2020?
Source: PA Opioid Data Dashboard
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