Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development

		Scott McCallum     Governor State of Wisconsin

Tuesday, October 15, 2002
Contact:	Tim Roby, Governor’s Office (608) 266-8110

MADISON – Saying the growing shortage of workers is one of the most pressing problems plaguing health care today in Wisconsin, Gov. Scott McCallum today put in motion a plan to solve Wisconsin’s health care worker shortage.

"We are facing a crisis in Wisconsin and the time to address this critical issue is now," Gov. McCallum said. "We must do everything we can to retain health care workers in Wisconsin and to recruit fresh new faces to the industry, and I am committed to leading that charge."

The Governor’s Health Care Worker Shortage Committee, a working group of more than 90 members from the health care industry, labor, education and government, developed the action plan. Gov. McCallum announced the formation of the committee in April 2002 and named Department of Workforce Development Secretary Jennifer Alexander and Dr. Richard Carpenter, president of the Wisconsin Technical College System, as co-chairs.

The committee found Wisconsin is suffering from a lack of trained, qualified people to fill the jobs available in an industry expected to need 45,000 more workers by 2008. Without immediate action, the state’s health care worker shortage will worsen over the next decade, in part because Wisconsin’s population is aging, which will drive up the demand for health care services, and because many older health-care workers will reach retirement age.

The report, which is available at http://www.dwd.state.wi.us/ghcwsc has the following major goals:

• Increase the retention rates of Wisconsin’s current heath care workers.
• Redesign the health care system and become proactive in prevention and wellness promotion to improve both health care work and population outcomes.
• Establish a leadership committee to advise the governor and helps coordinate health care worker shortage solutions in the state of Wisconsin.
• Increase the number and diversity of individuals choosing health care occupations and expand educational capacity to meet the needs of the labor force.

Gov. McCallum said his administration would continue to work with the Technical College System to develop a package for legislative action next year. He also vowed to implement a number of recommendations through his executive power.

Specific recommendations which should be pursued immediately include:

Goal: Increase the retention rates of Wisconsin’s current heath care workers.

• Aggressively seek to increase reimbursement from all funding sources to allow employers to provide competitive wages to employees. Gov. McCallum recently signed a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson requesting a review of the current Medicare reimbursement system.
• Create employment conditions which expand learning opportunities for staff and maximize direct patient care.
• Identify and document health care employers with outstanding employee retention rates to use as benchmarks for others in the industry.

Goal: Redesign the health care system and become proactive in prevention and wellness promotion to improve both health care work and population outcomes.

• Educate the general public and patients on their responsibility for health maintenance, incentive for wellness, avoiding injury, preventing and managing disease and care options (Wisconsin Encourages Healthy Lifestyles program).

Goal: Establish a leadership committee that serves as an umbrella group coordinating health care worker shortage solutions in the state of Wisconsin.

• Appoint a leadership committee which includes a representative group of public/private health care stakeholders, education leaders, consumers and all levels of health care workers and caregivers.

Goal: Increase the number and diversity of individuals choosing health care occupations and expand educational capacity to meet the needs of the labor force.

• Adopt state-to-state reciprocity for health care fields.
• Provide incentives for and expand articulation agreements within and between higher education sectors so individuals in careers like nursing develop mutually agreed upon competencies for each of the health care credentials.

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