CEO Messages

It wasn’t long ago that that overwhelming numbers of people across Texas and the nation – on all sides of the political spectrum – knew and acknowledged that vaccines prevent diseases.

An unfortunate reality in today’s world of fast-spreading information is, well, misinformation. With the internet and social media affording a potentially unvetted voice to just about everyone, misinformation is – ironically enough – a fact of life.

A recent Texas Hospital Association workforce survey reinforces and quantifies one fact that’s become abundantly clear: Hospitals are facing a breaking point for their workforce.

Earlier this month, the Texas Legislature gaveled in its 88th session, and what’s going on at our state Capitol will occupy a great deal of hospitals’ attention for the next four-plus months. If you’re a conscientious health care provider who wants the best possible care environment for your facility, city and state, I’m sure you’ll be following along, too.

As the pandemic tapers off, the need for hospitals has not. With surges of respiratory illnesses inundating emergency departments, hospitals – and hospital workers – remain our most unwavering line of defense.

We’ve all heard about bad things coming in threes. It’s a superstition that has persisted across generations and cultures. Any time three catastrophes happen to fall on top of each other, some point to it as a product of that old adage. There’s no scientific evidence of its validity, of course.

For hospitals and the Texas Hospital Association, once Nov. 8 comes and goes, and the winners of state elections have been declared – including for all 181 seats in the Texas Legislature, as well as for governor and lieutenant governor – an important new phase in determining the future of Texas health care begins.

As health care continues to sit at the front of the public consciousness – as it has since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – patients and providers alike continue to find themselves characters in a story as persistent as it is frustrating.

With no shortage of polarizing issues circulating in Texas right now, one thing is clear no matter your politics: Mental health is top of mind. The stress of an ongoing pandemic layered with racial tensions, school shootings, divisive abortion laws, and a turbulent economy have pushed behavioral health front and center.

The passage of time takes the sting out of painful memories. It’s a coping mechanism that allows us to move on from trauma and move forward with hope. As the pandemic moves toward second-page news, it’s hard to recall the early days of intense uncertainty, rapid-fire disease spread, school closures, mixed mask messages, travel bans, hand sanitizer rationing, and an abundance of panic as the country embarked on what we thought maybe a few weeks of turbulence and closures.