Bed constraints, supply chain issues and staffing shortages are among the many challenges physicians may face in 2024.
Justin Hurie, MD, associate chief medical officer at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, N.C., spoke with Becker's to discuss the biggest challenges physicians are up against in 2024.
Editor's note: These responses were edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
Question: What are the biggest challenges physicians are up against in 2024?
Dr. Justin Hurie: I think a lot of the challenges that we will face continue to extend towards some of the kinds of the bed constraints that we have coming out of the pandemic. I think that a lot of hospitals right now are dealing with shortages in terms of physical beds or staff beds. So making sure that we've got enough space to adequately take care of patients as they come in to be seen is one of the constraints that we're going to continue to deal with for a little bit.
Q: Are there any other constraints from the COVID-19 pandemic, such as supply chain or staffing shortages?
JH: I think those are both big issues. I think that there are continued issues in terms of supply shortages. It seems like those have persisted a little bit longer than I think we expected. So I think that that's still an issue that we're dealing with and seems to pop up in different areas in terms of physical supplies or medications. Then I think there are also just the staffing shortages that we're still dealing with to make sure that the beds that we have are adequately staffed.