Since the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic in March 2020, our nation’s hospitals have paid a significant financial toll … and psychiatric hospitals are no exception.  Inpatient psychiatric admissions declined heavily throughout the pandemic. And while health professional shortages have long impeded behavioral health care access, the recent and forthcoming retirements of more than half of the current workforce, due in part to the COVID pandemic, only adds to provider challenges. In this podcast, Jordan Steiger, senior program manager, Behavioral Health, Clinical Affairs and Workforce at the AHA, speaks with Matthew Stanley, clinical vice president, Behavioral Health Service Line, with Avera Health, Sioux Falls, SD Like many hospitals and health systems, Avera Health continues to face significant challenges as expenses continue to escalate, patient boarding in emergency departments grows, and staffing shortages, often addressed by hiring expensive travel nurses as a solution, combine to create unsustainable budget pressures. Undeterred, Dr. Stanley and his team have accelerated their work to improve access to behavioral health care in the face of these daunting obstacles.