Hospitals in upstate New York are struggling to recruit workers with vacancy rates for registered nurses at 18.3%, triple the average vacancy rate six years ago, according to a guest opinion by Gary Fitzgerald, president and CEO of Iroquois Healthcare Association. The opinion piece was published on Syracuse.com and other news outlets; Fitzgerald’s organization represents 50 hospitals in upstate New York. Fitzgerald in the opinion asked New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for $1 billion in funding for recruitment and retention. In addition to recruitment and other problems, Fitzgerald wrote that hospitals have had to pay travel nursing agencies “exorbitant hourly rates that are nothing more than unscrupulous price gouging.”