With the healthcare industry still feeling the effects of the government shutdown, leaders can address the ongoing challenges by increasing support for the employees who keep the system running.
Approximately 32,460 healthcare workers were furloughed during the government shutdown that began in October, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, adding to the existing strain felt by this workforce population. And while the shutdown officially ended in November, hospitals and healthcare systems still face employee burnout, administrative pressures, delayed regulatory processes and operational backlogs. These issues are impacting people across the healthcare spectrum, as well as those who rely on their services.
"The government shutdown impacted different people in different healthcare sectors in different ways," says Richard Birke, chief architect at employee training platform JAMS Pathways. "Someone who processes Medicare benefits or reimbursements didn't have the same experience as a pediatric surgeon, but broadly speaking, it introduced a higher level of uncertainty for everyone everywhere."
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Benefits leaders and patients are feeling the strain of that uncertainty in many different ways. For example, they may face longer wait times for answers, extended holds on the phone and interactions with overextended medical staff. The growing tension in healthcare institutions has also added to organizations' existing concerns regarding the price of healthcare, which is anticipated to go up 9% in 2026 alone, according to a survey from the Business Group on Health.
It will be up to managers and leaders at healthcare institutions to shoulder much of the repair burden left by the shutdown, as they're the ones closest to supporting overstretched employees. Healthcare leaders will need to invest more time and resources into rebuilding morale, improving communication and ensuring workers feel protected and valued.
"It's not like just because the spigot is back on, everything is back to normal," Birke says. "We bring our whole lives into our professional lives, and this has been a very stressful time in an already stressful profession. As a result, we're witnessing changes in the approach to managing healthcare and healthcare workers."
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Providing support from the top-down
Healthcare leaders can help their teams manage stress by retraining in conflict resolution with mediation service solutions like JAMS Pathways, Birke says. These skills include approaching disagreements neutrally, helping peers or teams work through tension and using interest-based negotiation techniques. Leaders can further strengthen engagement and connection by ensuring employees on every level of their organization share the same ultimate goals, and fostering discussions on how to achieve them together versus individually.
By giving employees the support and the tools to be productive, engaged and work as a team, leaders are paving the way for larger-scale issues, such as workers feeling overworked and burnt out, to begin to resolve.
"Conflict and uncertainty [creates] opportunity, so rather than be reactive, take a step back and think about what your big priorities are," Birke says. "Managers keep people motivated; their job is going to be to refocus the mission of their organizations and figure out how to accomplish it with what they have."
