Report: California faces shortage of healthcare workers

OAKLAND
November 5, 2007 11:00am

California’s healthcare industry is facing an immediate shortage of college-educated workers, according to a study released Monday.

Further, the state’s healthcare organizations will soon be hit by an ageing population needing substantially more care even as a generation of skilled Baby Boomer workers retires from healthcare jobs, says the report sponsored by the Campaign for College Opportunity in Oakland.

“Shortages in the healthcare workforce will place the health of Californians in jeopardy,” warns Marilyn Chow, vice president of patient care services at Kaiser Permanente. “Today’s chronic shortages are going to become worse as the population ages.”

The study found major shortages in “allied health,” a sector that includes 60 percent of health care jobs. These technical occupations include such jobs as EMTs, radiology technologists, and respiratory therapists.

While many factors influence the numbers of allied health professionals, the study says the “greatest limiting factor” is the lack of capacity in California’s colleges to train and educate enough people to meet demand.

Most allied health jobs have education requirements that include certificates and associate degrees, and some occupations require post-graduate degrees.

“As Californians, all of our healthcare depends on getting more students into and through community college and university training programs,” says Abdi Soltani, executive director of the Campaign for College Opportunity.

There are several reasons that prevent colleges and universities from meeting the demand, according to the report, including the high costs of health education programs, a lack of clinical placements, and faculty shortages.

“Other industries need to pay attention to the shortages being experienced in the health care industry because they’re next,” says Bill Hauck, president of the California Business Roundtable. “California could lose its competitive edge which depends on an educated workforce.”

The research was funded by Kaiser Permanente and the California Wellness Foundation and conducted by Health Workforce Solutions LLC. The study was sponsored by the Campaign for College Opportunity.

Co-founders of the CCO are the California Business Roundtable, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Community College League of California.

Comments on this story

Dr Coles 11/6/07 9:17 AM
This crisis was caused by the incompetent state legislators listening to the Nurses Union and mandating a change in patient to nurse ratio (and many other mandates) without regard to where the nurses were going to come from. Here in California we now pay excessive salaries. The problems with health care in California and the nation are all cause by government interference. See http://www.InteliOrg.com/ for more information.