Inside a medical center in Reno, Nevada is a cavernous newly built room.

Anthony Sloanam, CEO of the hospital system, likens the room to an air traffic control

center.

Think about a room, a big room, with 30 big screen minestricks in the front of the room,

and a whole bunch of people facing those minestricks.

From this command center, nurses can monitor the heartbeats, blood pressure, and other vital

signs of patients throughout the hospital.

The hope is that this new high-tech system could eventually help nurses to monitor more

patients than they currently can, especially as they face a staffing crunch.

The nursing shortage is now at crisis proportions.

Things were really exacerbated in the context of the pandemic.

All kinds of companies across the economy are facing labor shortages, and to try to lure

workers, they're offering higher wages, flexibility, and signing bonuses.

But many are also trying a different tactic, similar to what Anthony Sloanam's trying

to do at his Reno hospital, investing in technology that could help them operate with fewer

workers.

Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Kate Limebaw.

It's Friday, October 22.

Coming up on the show, how the labor shortage is accelerating companies' reliance on automation,

and what that means for the economy and workers.

We are in, I think, one of the most unique positions in the history of our country when

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