Hospital Workers

For Maplewood resident Andrew Ring, food has always been more than just physical sustenance: It’s also comfort. After leaving St. Louis to become a travel nurse, he realized that more than the Gateway City's gooey cheese and iconic sweets was calling him back home.

Around 14% of all staff positions at hospitals were vacant in 2023, a rate that’s lower than it was at the height of the pandemic but still higher than in 2019.

Amazon employees, nurses and workers rights advocates gathered to call out working conditions they say don’t help employees stay healthy.

The Missouri Hospital Association's annual report shows vacancies and turnover rates at the state's hospitals have decreased since the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2021. But they remain high, and employers are concerned about the future workforce.

The Department of Mental Health has continued to grapple with steep vacancies among staff, causing access to care across its state-run mental health facilities to decline as wings are shut down.

Gov. Pritzker said the state is bolstering its health care workforce by deploying more workers and allowing out-of-state health care providers to continue practicing in Illinois with expanded permissions to care for all patients.

“We could reach or exceed the highest we’ve ever been in by the second week of September,” Mike McManus said during St. Clair County’s weekly COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday.

Gov. Mike Parson said hospital capacity is "becoming a problem," warns Missourians about family gatherings for the upcoming holidays.

As a therapy technician, Amy Jones doesn’t work directly with COVID-19 patients, but last month she was exposed to the coronavirus while helping another…