Some sobering stats on the healthcare labor shortage from the Mercer Report.
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Health IT will play a role in filling this gap. Technology has improved efficiency in almost every industry, it appears that Healthcare is now in need of some of that efficiency. Even that will not be enough to fill this gap.
#healthcare #healthIT #cio #cmio #chime #himss
Today in health, it, we have a labor shortage. It's not just minimum wage jobs it's happening at all levels. My name is bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and creator of this week in health. It a channel dedicated to keeping health it staff current and engaged. All right today. Thursday, October 7th at 11:00 AM. Eastern time. We have a really cool webinar coming through. A ransomware event, best practices and lessons learned. We're going to be talking to the CIO for sky lakes, medical center. John Getty as well as Lee Milligan the CIO for a Santi health system. Sky lakes was ransomed Santee health system. Is there community connect, host. And we're going to take a look at that and go into some detail. So we'd love to have you join. You can register go to this week, health.com/register and sign up there. And even if he can't make it today, go ahead and sign up because we will send you a link to the recorded webinar that you can attend after the fact. All right. Let's get to today's story. It's actually a combination of an infographic and a story. The story is a Mercer report. So Mercer report healthcare, labor shortages will continue to grow. Here's what they have to say. A press release on their porch states that the healthcare workforce is burned out and traumatized following the nearly two year face off against COVID-19. Healthcare workers are and will continue to be in high demand. And labor supply is not keeping up. Even before COVID-19 the U S healthcare labor market faced remarkable challenges. And while labor shortages in the U S are widespread significant deficits in healthcare talent. We'll have an impact on all of us. According to the report and about 9.7 million individuals currently work in critical albeit low wage. Healthcare occupations. Such as medical assistants, home health aides, and nursing assistants, the need for these workers will grow over the next five years to around 10.7 million. The report goes on to explain that if trends in the U S do not change more than 6.5 million individuals. We'll leave these jobs permanently within five years and only 1.9 million will take their place. This adds up to a significant shortage of critical healthcare labor in the us 3.2 million workers short. Within five years. Let me give you a couple more stats. Now go on to the infographic. 64% of healthcare professionals said better flexibility and work-life balance are key considerations. That would attract them to a new employer. 87% of respondents say that better pay and benefits would attract them to a new employer. New York and California are each projected to fall short by 500,000 healthcare workers. As early as 2026. Driven by workers who decide to permanently leave their career in healthcare with 1.6 million leaving for good in the next five years. Demand for primary care physicians will grow 4% over the next five years. In the next five years, 900,000 nurses are projected to permanently leave. The profession employers will need to hire 1.1 million nurses by 2026. If current nursing trends do not change 29 states. We'll not be able to keep up with the demand And we'll be short approximately. 100,000 nurses in the next five years. So there are some concerning numbers. Then McKinsey did a report. And the infographic has the title of the great attrition or the great attraction, a record number of employees. Are quitting their jobs as the pandemic has irrevocably changed what workers expect, organizations that learn why. And act thoughtfully, we'll have an edge in attracting and retaining talent. All right. So yeah, 40% of employees say they are likely to leave in the next three to six months. 64% of employees considering leaving. Say they would do so without another job in hand. That's interesting. 38%. Of employers believe attrition is due to compensation. But 54% of employees leave because they don't feel valued. By their managers while 51% of employees leave because they don't feel a sense of belonging at work. Wow. So there you have it. Here's my, so what on this. And a lot of it's baked into the stories. We are going to be facing an unprecedented shortage in healthcare workers. So from an it perspective, from a healthcare it perspective, we have to have that. As part of our calculus as part of our framework for innovating, how are we going to make people much more effective than they've been in the past? And this is where technology shines. So we should be looking. At how these technologies can be used to address this labor shortage. So that's on that side of it. And there's a lot of specific things we could look at. We could look at how. We make each physician more efficient, but I would start at the basics. And I've talked about this project. A while back. And I do this all the time, everywhere I go, where I'm looking for, 15 minutes out of everybody's day and give it back to them. Start with 15 minutes, figure out 30, figure out 60. Cause you know what soon you're going to have to be looking at how do we take 20 hours out of everybody's week so that you can double the capacity of the workforce. So that's something that it will play a major or technology or processes or data. Machine learning AI. These will play a role in helping to alleviate the strain that is going to becoming on the workers that remain. In terms of the great attrition. This one, I'm looking at it specifically. I've talked to some people this week. And the impression I'm getting is. This is happening. People are walking away. And people in high-level roles are using the pandemic. To make transitions and they are transitioning to jobs that more aligned with what they want out of life. People are starting to ask the question of what do I want out of life? What do I want my life to look like? And they don't feel as tied to a job or even a location. And so they are making some very interesting decisions. And making some transitions, but in that process, they're creating an interesting gap, even at the senior level positions, recruiting and finding people that are willing to move is becoming harder and harder because a lot of them have just moved. And they found the position. That is going to give them the best work-life balance, the best opportunity to live the life that they want to live, and they're valuing things different. And that's one of the things I want you to hear from this great attrition. 38% of employers believe attrition is due to compensation. However 54%. I've employees leave because they don't feel valued. By their managers. In 51% of employees leave because they don't feel a sense of belonging at work. There are other things that play here other than compensation, you can keep throwing money around, but it's not going to solve the issue. We have to connect with our employees, with our staff, with our labor force and understand what's driving them. What are they looking for out of employment? If they're going to invest their lives in their careers. For our house system, what can we give them in return? And it's not always money. That used to be the case. And it's old thinking and we have to adjust. What's it going to take to keep our employees from looking for the next role. What is it going to take to keep them engaged? What are we going to do to make our managers better managers so that their staff feel valued. And how do we build a sense of belonging and whatever else you find out as you connect with your employees and you listen to them and they tell you what they are looking for. Out of the organization out of this career. Out of their investment in time at your house system. 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