Approximately how many hospitals were critically short-staffed in November 2020?

• A. 500
• B. 1,000
• C. 2,000
• D. 1,500

Answer: (B)

During the COVID-19 surge, the question is about the scale of hospital staffing strain, specifically how widespread critical shortages were. In November 2020, reports and surveys from national hospital groups indicated that roughly one thousand hospitals were experiencing critical staffing shortages. This reflects the broad impact of high patient volumes, nurse and clinician burnout, illness-related absences, and the reliance on traveling staff to fill gaps.

Choosing a number as small as five hundred would underrepresent the reach of the problem, while figures like one thousand five hundred or two thousand would suggest an even larger share of hospitals were affected than what major sources documented at that time. So the estimate of about one thousand hospitals aligns with the observed nationwide strain during that period.