News Releases

The Center Launches Allied Health Workforce Collaborative

The Center for Health Affairs, which has been convening organizations and developing solutions to nursing workforce challenges through NEONI for 18 years, has launched a new collaborative aimed at bringing the same success to allied health. The new Allied Health Workforce Collaborative held its first meeting in January, bringing together human resources leaders from across the membership.

Prior to this convening, Pam Waite, MSN, RN-BC, MHSA, The Center’s director of healthcare workforce and NEONI operations, had been busy behind the scenes, collecting information from member hospitals in order to zero in on their most pressing needs with respect to the allied health workforce. From the information she collected, the Allied Health Workforce Collaborative assembled the following list of 10 priority professions on which initial efforts will be focused:

• Medical Lab Technicians
• Medical Lab Scientists
• Medical Assistants
• Respiratory Assistants
• Surgical Techs
• Pharmacy Techs
• Sterile Processing Techs
• Social Workers (LISWs and LPCCs)
• General Sonographers
• Vascular Sonographers

From here, the next step will be collecting data from both hospitals and educational institutions in order to quantify supply and demand for these professions. From the hospitals, The Center will seek information regarding the number of staff they currently employ, how many are expected to retire in the next few years, turnover rates, and the number of positions currently open for each of the 10 identified professions. Educational institutions will be asked to share information regarding enrollment, total program capacity and graduation rates.

Once collected, the data will serve as the foundation for designing as well as implementing programs and strategies. Potential issues to be addressed may include a lack of career awareness among students and young adults, and clinical rotation capacity that may not be fully utilized nor efficiently scheduled.

For more information on the Allied Health Workforce Collaborative, contact us.