Addressing Medical Technician Shortages in Hospitals

In January 2024, ACHE conducted a survey of hospital leaders to learn more about causes for workforce shortages and how hospitals are addressing them. Of the 1,633 who received the survey, 
350 responded for an overall response rate of 21%.

Hospital CEOs were asked to name the top three workforce shortages they were experiencing. They reported their top staffing shortages as follows: 71% of responses indicated a shortage of registered nurses, 50% identified a lack of medical technicians and 35% mentioned a shortage of physicians. Among physicians, 18% specified a shortage of specialists and 17% noted a lack of primary care physicians.

The primary reasons for the shortage of medical technicians are: 78% cited insufficient graduates, 69% mentioned competition from other hospitals and 44% noted the undesirability of the hospital’s location. Additional factors include competition from agencies (39%), nonhospital providers (30%) and nonhealthcare employers (8%), staff retirement/leaving (29%), burnout (18%), and other reasons (4%). 

Hospital CEOs address the shortage of medical technologists through various strategies: 86% focus on staff recruitment, 76% on staff retention and 71% on using contract agency staff who are travelers. Additional approaches include using per diem contract staff (29%), altering care models (22%) and reducing services (8%). 

ACHE wishes to thank the leaders who responded to this survey for their time, consideration and service to their profession and to healthcare leadership research. 

Table 1. Reason for staff shortage of medical technicians.

Table 2. Strategies to address the shortage of medical technologists