Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act

Floor Speech

Miss GONZALEZ-COLON. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Upton for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1667, the Dr. Lorna Breen Healthcare Provider Act. This bill strikes close to home for me. I know a gentleman who served in our Armed Forces as an enlisted hospital corpsman and advocated for this bill.

He responded after the 2011 earthquake in Haiti, working in an intensive care unit and caring for local residents, even as an estimated 200,000 lives were lost. He and many of his fellow corpsmen were teenagers at the time.

Upon returning home, he thought, as this bill calls it, that he was simply burned out. Many of those he served with would abruptly leave the service or transition to administrative duties.

After suffering from flashbacks during emergency and medical situations, though, this gentleman would quietly leave the service as well, recognizing that he could no longer render the care that he had been trained to give. It would take nearly a decade for him to begin accessing mental health resources that he needed.

Madam Speaker, I tell this story, with his permission, of course, to make two points.

First, that widespread provider burnout can lead to staffing shortages.

Second, that many times we use the phrase ``burnout'' to hide deeper wounds. Burnout implies a short-term change, one that seemingly heals with a break or a vacation. But as our hospitals have overflowed in places with COVID patients, burnout can be something more serious.

That is why this bill is important. It establishes a communication campaign to educate and encourage providers to seek care. It will decrease costs by establishing grant programs for providers who use that care, and it will produce cutting-edge science on the problem of burnout among physicians.

Madam Speaker, let me close by saying that all healthcare providers should know that accessing the resources this act will provide is a good thing. It means they are still human enough to appreciate the tragedies they experience.

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Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume.

Madam Speaker, first of all, I thank the leadership on our committee. I thank Mr. Pallone, Ms. McMorris Rodgers, Mr. Guthrie, and obviously, Chair Anna Eshoo, and our staffs for moving this legislation forward.

Madam Speaker, this is a very important bill. All of our healthcare workers, particularly in this COVID pandemic, are really heroes. They are, without exception. All of us know many of these workers because they are our neighbors and friends. And each of us have heard those cries of woe as they have done their job every day, every day, day after day for 24/7.

I can't imagine how they do it; watching so many folks suffer as they try to help them from their hospital beds. Passing on the sad words that they passed away to family members, maybe not even in person because of this terrible pandemic. And thinking of the hundreds of thousands of Americans that have died because of this awful disease, let alone so many more across the globe.

Well, one of those healthcare workers who was well-publicized at the time was Lorna Breen, a physician from Charlottesville, working on the front lines of the pandemic in New York, moving up there to try and help the need. And, yes, as it was mentioned, took her own life.

This was a national story. It gripped the Nation. I can remember watching the news show that week as this tragic story was portrayed. It outlined the severe stress that this pandemic has put on our healthcare workers and the need for the resources that they need to help them cope. The demands that our healthcare heroes are facing, they have not changed. They haven't changed yet. For months, for a year-and-a-half, they have been asked to care for communities in my district in Southwest Michigan and across the country 24/7 as the pandemic continues. This bill helps us have their backs.

Madam Speaker, I talk to major hospitals in my district every week. And the common refrain that we have been hearing throughout the State of Michigan is that our hospitals are still strained to the breaking point. Staff shortages are severe. I saw a story a few hours ago but I think the State of Maine is now taking up their National Guard. We have asked for national help from President Biden as well in Michigan. There have been too many examples of healthcare workers that are suffering from this enormous pressure as they fight the worst public health crisis in a century.

This legislation is going to help promote mental and behavioral health for those healthcare professionals, improving their overall well-being and maybe even saving their own lives. This bill helps promote mental and behavioral health among those working on the front lines of the pandemic. It supports training for health professionals to prevent suicide and burnout, and it increases awareness about suicide and mental health concerns among their peers.

I am glad that we are considering this important bill and that we will vote on it yet tonight. I look forward to having it being signed into law.

Again, I thank the bipartisan cooperation on both sides of the aisle. Hopefully, we can get our Senate colleagues--and I know that they are with us on this--to work together to get this bill to the President as soon as we can. We can't wait another day.

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Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am ready to close.

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Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, this is a great bill. We need to vote for it without delay, and I thank my chairman. I yield back the balance of my time.

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