Hospital staff shortages, health equity, pandemic response among issues tackled by WA legislators
Washington lawmakers tackled a wide range of health care issues during this year鈥檚 legislative session, from staffing shortages to long-term care obstacles, and made some strides in addressing ongoing equity gaps within hospitals and health systems.
But more work is needed to smooth out solutions to some specific worker and patient safety concerns, like how to better support the state鈥檚 chronically understaffed hospitals and overworked staffers.
Many mental and behavioral health advocates also came away from the 2022 session to expand roles for social workers, therapists and psychologists, though the new supplemental state budget, , allocates more than $100 million to help address behavioral health workforce shortages.
And as the world enters its third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, lawmakers also set aside more than $1 billion in unspent federal relief to help stabilize school districts and strengthen the hospitality and convention industries, the arts sector, and small businesses.
Millions will also be put toward cancer research, updating public health data systems, addressing the state鈥檚 opioid epidemic, building out more health insurance coverage options and tobacco-use prevention.
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