New York State Report on Health Care Workforce Challenges & Initiatives

ALBANY, New York (August 9, 2022)—A first-of-its-kind statewide Workforce Development Summit was held on May 16 to discuss models and strategies for health personnel recruitment, training and retention to meet the current and future needs of all New Yorkers. In an environment of severe, persistent health care workforce shortages and other challenges, the summit provided a foundation for accelerated, collaborative work and next steps.
 
The summit was co-hosted by the Home Care Association of New York State (HC), Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) and Iroquois Healthcare Association (IHA). HCA, HANYS and IHA have produced a summary report of the event that contains outstanding perspectives, data, models and takeaways. The report highlights workforce development in several ways, including:

• challenges in the workforce;
• New York state’s vision and policy agenda for the health workforce;
• models and perspectives across the nation;
• perspectives from the healthcare professions; and
• next steps and resources.
 
The collaborative report provides an important resource and catalyst for the health continuum, the educational system, business community, local, state and national leaders and the broader public.
 
The summit and report are two of the multiple Statewide Hospital-Home Care Collaborative components. The collaborative is co-led by the Home Care Association of New York State/HCA Education and Research, Healthcare Association of New York State/Healthcare Educational and Research Fund and Iroquois Healthcare Association. Both the collaborative and summit are supported by a grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation.
 
“Clinicians and collaborative personnel are the very essence of health care service. Addressing the pervasive health care staffing shortages and overall under-capacity for both current and future needs must be a societal priority,” HCA’s President and CEO Al Cardillo said. “This workforce emergency was growing prior to the pandemic and has only been exacerbated since; it is the result of many factors requiring a multi‐faceted solution. Our collective hope as partners is that this collaborative Summit will fuel actionable ideas for implementation across the state to restore and fortify the critical infrastructure that is our health care workforce.”
 
“The pandemic has been a period of rapid transformation in healthcare unlike any we’ve seen before. It continues to significantly impact our workforce,” Bea Grause, RN, JD, president, Healthcare Association of New York State said. “Hospitals, homecare providers and others across the care continuum are committed to working together to bolster the pipeline and support our current caregivers. We thank the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation for making the summit possible and we look forward to continuing to engage in constructive, solutions-focused conversations.”
 
IHA President and CEO Gary J. Fitzgerald said, “The problems we are facing now have a profound impact on our future. The HCA-IHA-HANYS Statewide Hospital-Home Care Collaborative is thinking strategically about the issues and making sure the solutions are multi-faceted. The Workforce Development Summit report is an incredible tool because it compounds many different outlooks and expertise from all over the country. With innovative thinking and a community mindset, we can use these tools to build a better future in health care.”
 
Visit hca-nys.org for collaborative resources, tools, links to all previously recorded webinars and the Workforce Development Summit Summary to help chart future directions in care.