Time to Get Ill

This makes me feel so much better:

Maryland is one of the lowest-ranked states in the country in terms of preparedness for health emergencies such as bioterrorism or pandemic flu, but Virginia is among the 14 best-prepared states, according to a report issued by a health advocacy group yesterday.

[snip]

Matthew Minson, a senior official in the Maryland Health Department, said he did not want to comment on the report's findings without more access to the data it used. But, he said, Maryland has made "substantial improvement" on preparing for health disasters. He also said he was "pleased" with confidential evaluations that Maryland had received from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

[snip]

The report found that half of all states -- including Maryland and Virginia -- would run out of hospital beds within two weeks of a moderately severe pandemic flu outbreak. The District is in better shape: About two-thirds of its hospital beds would be filled in that period, according to the study.

[snip]

Three years ago, Maryland was ranked among the best prepared states by the Trust for America's Health, which at that time focused more on readiness to confront a bioterrorism attack. Maryland got a lower score this time, in part because of its vaccination rates and nursing shortage.

That last part is especially troubling, not just with respect to health emergencies, but also because of the aging population, both in Maryland and nationwide. This UMD-Baltimore study found that the state has a shortage of about 3,000 nurses, and that was in 2003, when Maryland was supposedly more prepared. Between caring for the elderly and dealing with potential epidemics or bioterrorist attacks, health care workers will be under severe strain.

In spite of this, there doesn't seem to be much effort to bring more people into the nursing workforce, or even retain them. As the study noted, nursing education programs in Maryland haven't expanded to admit more students, real wages for nurses have been stagnant for at least 10 years, and many nurses have quit due to poor working conditions. Given that nursing, along with teaching, will be one of the few skilled professions that's also in high demand in the coming years (see this Demos report (PDF) for more details), making nursing a more attractive line of work will be necessary both for the sake of public health and for preserving a strong middle class in Maryland.