Executive Summary
2020 and 2021 illuminated and exacerbated long-standing issues and heralded new issues that Wisconsin had previously been able to mitigate, such as widespread nursing shortages and a sudden and almost complete lack of access to post-acute placement for patients no longer requiring hospital care.
2022 brought on additional challenges: an early and intense surge in other seasonal illnesses like respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza that strained emergency department and pediatric bed capacity, and a worsening of supply chain shortages, including an IV contrast shortage that threatened the availability of radiologic diagnostics and treatments nationwide.
The Silver Tsunami, the aging of the large baby boom generation, also continues to surge through Wisconsin and the nation. The waves of retirements produced by the Silver Tsunami will persist for another decade. This is a challenge faced by all industries. The challenge is compounded for health care, though, as the aging of our population is also rapidly increasing health care demand, an impact health care will feel for decades after the last of the baby boom generation reaches retirement age and the impact on other industries eases.
As increasing numbers of baby boomers retire, younger generations of workers are reshaping workforce expectations. To ensure care for their communities, hospitals and health systems must appeal to a multigenerational workforce and meet expectations for a culture that provides meaningful work, caring and trusting teammates, opportunity for growth and a safe and healthy work environment.
The health care workforce must grow faster to meet the increased demand for health care created by an aging population. Health care employers will need to retain current employees while also attracting new talent to Wisconsin and to health care fields by making health care career pathways visible, achievable and meaningful. Even with the best efforts, it’s unlikely the workforce will grow fast enough.
To keep pace, health care leaders, educators, policymakers and the health care workforce must pursue strategies to realize the full potential of health care teams, leverage innovative technologies to achieve greater efficiencies and create better connections with patients, and remove regulatory barriers and burnout that impede care delivery and consume precious workforce time, energy and expertise.
WHA’s workforce analysis and recommendations focus on the targeted and sustained growth needed to address current and future challenges and on ways to increase capacity with a multigenerational workforce that cannot grow fast enough and is now falling behind demand.
WHA recommends that health care organizations, educators and policymakers pursue forward-looking sustainable health care policy that will support the health care workforce and sustain the excellent health care Wisconsin is known for— specifically, organizational, public and payer policy that will:
- Highlight health care as an achievable and meaningful profession;
- Promote rapid innovations to retain and recruit workers to Wisconsin’s health care workforce;
- Break down barriers to top-of-skill practice;
- Reduce regulatory burden and increase regulatory flexibility;
- Encourage innovative use of technology;
- Support care in the best setting—inpatient, outpatient, emergency or post-acute; and
- Adequately resource the safety net hospitals provide while working to reduce over-reliance on hospitals, health systems and the health care workforce to meet public health needs.