Situation Report | August 8, 2022
HCA in collaboration with state and regional hospital association partners – the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) and the Iroquois Healthcare Association (IHA) – have issued a summary report of a multi-sector, statewide summit on the health workforce held virtually on May 26. The report was transmitted directly to Governor Hochul, the Governor’s chief health appointees in the Executive Chamber, and the Commissioners of the major state agencies overseeing the delivery of services and currently engaged in the health personnel recruitment, training and retention efforts.
The summit, convened under the Statewide Hospital-Home Care Collaborative led by HCA, HANYS and HCA, was the first workforce summit of this multi-sector type in many years. Along with both the immediate and long-term imperatives of securing the needed workforce in the health care system, the current crisis in health care staffing deepened to unparalleled levels by COVID-19, demands comprehensive, collaborative and cross-sector, interdisciplinary action.
The HCA-HANYS-IHA report provides major findings and innovative strategies presented during the summit. Among the diverse areas covered in the report, are:
- The efforts by New York and other states across the country to build a health care workforce pipeline.
- The latest data and perspectives from health disciplines (nursing, physical therapy, aide level, student) on the current status and future vision of health occupations
- Needs related to encouraging entrance into the field and to support longevity and future evolution to meet personal and community health needs.
- Local and regional models to address the problem, including:
- A partnership between Cayuga Community College, several school districts and Oswego Health aimed at identifying potential health system employees early in their high school years
- The Rhode Island Nurses Institute Middle College model for pipeline development.
HCA and partners hope that the insights will help provide a foundation for input into workforce issues and solutions that will be taken up by the new state Office of Health Care Workforce Innovation, as well as by all levels of state, regional, local leaders and stakeholders, including providers, practitioners and members of the workforce, consumers, payors, educators, the media, researchers and all concerned with the health care staffing. HCA and partners will be widely distributing the report across all sectors and the aforementioned stakeholders, and urging collaborative engagement in real solutions.
In addition, through HCA’s Statewide Hospital-Home Care Collaborative, we are currently developing “blueprints” that can help replicate successful career development initiatives presented at the summit, along with initiating other proactive follow-up based on the insights from the summit.
Also through the Collaborative, we are conducting a major workforce recruitment campaign that includes high-level promotion of health careers at home on a digital billboard in Times Square that we are calling “The Future of Healthcare is at Home”. This promotion began in June and runs through the end of August, and is estimated to achieve roughly 50,000 impressions daily.
HCA is currently also separately partnering with the IHA-sponsored “Workforce Investment Organization, on a number of health workforce initiatives, including HCA’s NYC Home Care Nurse Residency Collaborative Pilot Program (NRP). The NRP is a 9 – 12-month transition to practice program that serves as a bridge to support and enhance the professional development of nurses who are new to home care practice. The purpose of the program is to promote the development of competency and role transition, supporting the nurse resident professionally, emotionally, and socially during the first year of nursing practice in the home care setting.
The workforce emergency continues to command priority action at every level of HCA – federal, state, local, macro, field-level, educational, policy advocacy – and HCA communications will be seeking to both engage, and keep the membership advised, on developments and progress of each.