--- title: Without Resources, How Will Hospitals Survive As Businesses? | Five To Save description: We tend to consider labor shortages as impartial business, but if a hospital worker shortage prevents healthcare from being provided, that becomes personal. image: https://www.z5inventory.com/hubfs/FTS%20Header%202022%20-%20pig%20bank%20empty%20wallet.jpg --- [Skip to content](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/without-resources-how-will-hospitals-survive-as-businesses-five-to-save#main-content) [![Group 1211](https://www.z5inventory.com/hubfs/Group%201211.png)](https://www.z5inventory.com) - [Solutions](https://www.z5inventory.com/solutions) - [Z5 Count](https://www.z5inventory.com/solutions-2021-0-1) - [Z5 Fixed Asset](https://www.z5inventory.com/solution/fixedassetcount) - [Z5 Analytics](https://www.z5inventory.com/solutions-2021-0) - [Z5 Optimization](https://www.z5inventory.com/solutions-2021-0-0) - [Who We Serve](https://www.z5inventory.com/solutions-2022) - Company - [About Us](https://www.z5inventory.com/contact-2021) - [Contact Us](https://www.z5inventory.com/contact) - [Careers](https://www.z5inventory.com/careers) - [Blog](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog) - [Login](https://prod.z5development.com/) # Without Resources, How Will Hospitals Survive As Businesses? | Five To Save [Alex Diamond](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/author/alex-diamond) 1/18/2022 ![the Z5 Piggy Bank consults its empty wallet behind the words in white 5 To Save](https://www.z5inventory.com/hs-fs/hubfs/FTS%20Header%202022%20-%20pig%20bank%20empty%20wallet.jpg?width=1200&name=FTS%20Header%202022%20-%20pig%20bank%20empty%20wallet.jpg) Healthcare providers can't continue to provide goods and services in exchange for money if there are no personnel to provide the services and no goods, period. Those of us in the healthcare business are in the unenviable position of balancing the fact that providers are businesses and healthcare is a public good. On the one hand, business transactions are totally impartial. If you don't like your job, you leave to find a better job, and that's that. On the other hand, if your leaving creates a labor shortage that prevents your neighbor from getting a kidney transplant, that neighbor is going to take it pretty personally.  That's the tension we saw this week as outlets and experts tried to anticipate what will be the defining struggles of 2022 and how we can overcome them (while still catching up on the problems that have been plaguing us for years now).  Here's the [Five To Save](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/five-to-save) from this week's news:  1. We're at the point where the people who know best have found it necessary to say now that [most Americans will get it](https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/96638). So we have to ask ourselves: ["What do we want from vaccines?"](https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/healthpolicy/96635) If it's to get less severely sick, great, because that's what they do. If it's to lower rates of transmission, great, because vaccines do that, too.  2. Some of this science played a part in the [two recent Supreme Court decisions](https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/96668) about vaccine mandates. Businesses aren't required to require vaccines, unless they're healthcare providers, because then vaccines are directly related to the health of the patient / consumer / human being who's on the other end of the transaction.  3. How about the supplies necessary to conduct those transactions? With disruption rising once again, some providers are resorting to [manufacturing their own supplies](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/burned-by-covid-supply-crunch-hospitals-invest-us-mask-making-2022-01-14/). Meanwhile supplies that were ordered when disruption was greatest and forgotten when disruption lessened have been [ruined by inattention](https://newsnationusa.com/news/usanews/7-million-of-ppe-left-outside-and-damaged-by-storms-at-bay-area-county-facility/).  4. Many of the supply disruptions facing American businesses are caused less by a material shortage than [a labor shortage](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2022/01/12/there-is-a-massive-trucker-shortage-causing-supply-chain-disruptions-and-high-inflation/). One of the small ways the government's considering to address this is [lowering the age of professional truckers to 18](https://news.yahoo.com/biden-administration-rolling-teenage-truckers-205830019.html) to increase the size of the workforce.  5. Great, we'll have more truckers, but what about healthcare workers? Labor shortages are just one of the [challenges that will continue through 2022 and beyond](https://medcitynews.com/2022/01/five-challenges-healthcare-faces-in-2022-and-beyond/), contributing to the fact that the [healthcare business in America is about to collapse](https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/96681).  We tend to think that, if a business fails, that's tough luck for the people who made the mistake of getting involved. Some customers, employees, and shareholders got burned. No big deal. But if that business is providing a public good, we're talking about something more severe than just "tough luck" for an entire community. How do we prioritize providing healthcare?  Maybe what's needed is [giving healthcare workers and the providers they work for the resources they need](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/healthcare-heroes-are-human-beings-and-appreciate-being-treated-that-way) without the push-back and hassle. Unprecedented times, unprecedented solutions, and all that.  Sign up to see what unprecedented disasters are coming next with our Five To Save newsletter.    [reallocation](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/reallocation) [supply chain management](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/supply-chain-management) [five to save](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/five-to-save) [disruption](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/disruption) [shortages](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/shortages) [coronavirus](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/coronavirus) [covid-19](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/covid-19) [sourcing](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/sourcing) [hospital logistics](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/hospital-logistics) [vaccines](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/vaccines) [healthcare supply chain](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/healthcare-supply-chain) [demand modeling](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/demand-modeling) [medical supply procurement](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/medical-supply-procurement) [human resources](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/topic/human-resources) ## Leave a Comment ## Related Posts ### [3/23/2020 Medical Supply Donations - How To Give & Receive](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/medical-supply-donations-how-to-give-receive) ### [5/17/2022 Shortages, Recalls, and Rising Cost: Healthcare's Perfect Storm | Five To Save](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/shortages-recalls-and-rising-cost-healthcares-perfect-storm-five-to-save) ### [2/8/2022 You Can't Afford To Be Surprised By Supply Disruption Anymore | Five To Save](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog/you-cant-afford-to-be-surprised-by-supply-disruption-anymore-five-to-save) ![Group 1212](https://www.z5inventory.com/hubfs/Group%201212.png) Z5 Inventory was founded with the purpose of saving health care providers nationwide from expiring product, empowering them to Count, Reallocate, and Buy their inventory all in one place. - [Solutions](https://www.z5inventory.com/solutions) - [Z5 Count](https://www.z5inventory.com/solutions-2021-0-1) - [Z5 Analytics](https://www.z5inventory.com/solutions-2021-0) - [Z5 Optimization](https://www.z5inventory.com/solutions-2021-0-0) - Company - [About Us](https://www.z5inventory.com/contact-2021) - [Contact Us](https://www.z5inventory.com/contact) - [Careers](https://www.z5inventory.com/careers) - [Blog](https://www.z5inventory.com/blog) - [Privacy Policy](https://www.z5inventory.com/privacy-policy) - [Get The App](https://www.z5inventory.com/platform) - [Apple App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/z5-count/id1557711721) - [Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.z5inventory&gl=US) - [Dashboard Login](https://prod.z5development.com/) © 2026 All rights reserved. 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