Healthcare Workforce Forum meeting held on October 13, 2005.
Meeting Minutes
HEALTHCARE WORKFORCE STAKEHOLDERS MEETING
October 13, 2005
Key Bank Plaza
Conference Room 16
1. Present
? Lisa Nutter ? MaineGeneral Hospital
? Karen Dostie ? MaineGeneral Hospital
? Bob Kelley ? Maine Dept. of Labor ? Labor Market Information
? Merrill Huhtala ? Maine Dept. of Labor ? Labor Market Information
? John Dorrer ? Maine Dept. of Labor ? Labor Market Information
? Lisa Miller ? State Representative ? HHS Committee ? Workforce Issues
? Jeff Toorish ? Maine State Nurses? Association
? Mary Mayhew ? Maine Hospital Association
? Drexell White ? Maine Emergency Medical Services ? Licensing Agent
? Marc Coulombe ? Maine Rural Health and Primary Care
? Greg Howat ? Eastern Maine Medical Center
? Peggy Pinkham ? St. Andrew?s Hospital ? CEO and President
? Kay Dutram ? Maine HHS ? Interim Director OPHEP
? Meredith Tipton ? University of New England ? Associate Dean Community Health Programs and Director Maine Statewide Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program
? John LaCasse ? Medical Care Development
? Lynn Rothney-Kozlak ? Maine Center for Public Health ? President and CEO
? Marty Henson ? Maine ODRVS ? Director, Survey Operations
? Sue LeDoux ? Maine ODRVS ? Health Manpower Coordinator
People around the table introduced themselves and their roles. Kay Dutram acted as facilitator.
2. Comments
Peggy Pinkham
Provided background for PL327. Peggy originally chaired the Council for the Healthcare Workforce Initiative in 2001 and has maintained an active role in addressing the issues of skilled healthcare workforce issues. She provided a summary and background for the legislation.
Meredith Tipton
AHEC tracks recruitment and retention in healthcare professions. AHEC produced three white papers:
? Solutions for Maine Health Careers Recruitment & Retention: A Visionary Approach
? Geriatric Provider Education Needs Assessment & Recommendations, and
? Professional Growth of the Lewiston/Auburn Healthcare Workforce: Where They Are, Where They Want to Be, What?s Keeping Them from Getting There.
This was a collaborative effort of the healthcare workforce entities within the Lewiston-Auburn metropolitan area and shows that work can be done at the community level. The healthcare coalitions include Franklin Community Health Network in the Franklin-Androscoggin-Oxford county areas and the Acadia Community Health Network in northern Maine. Included in the white papers are solutions that show that the work can be accomplished at the community level.
John Dorrer
It is important that someone integrate all the efforts to address the adequate supply of skilled healthcare work force issues, particularly with the demographics of the population.
Sue LeDoux
Explained the process now in place for surveying physicians (MDs and DOs) and dentists; also explained that the requirements of the legislation required revisions to the current surveys. ODRVS is working with InforME to enable on-line access to the survey and planning for paper surveys for those licensed individuals who do not have access to a computer or prefer a paper survey.
Merrill Huhtala, John Dorrer, and Bob Kelley of Dept of Labor
Presented a PowerPoint presentation of the type of information that is available on their website and discussed their perspective of the issues. DOL surveys are samples of strata of the healthcare workforce. If a practice is a sole proprietorship, the proprietor is NOT surveyed, but if ancillary personnel are employed, THEY are surveyed. The DOL does not survey all employers, but works within a mathematical model set forth by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics to sample and analyze. They continue follow-up until they attain a 75% response rate, which is the rate necessary to consider it reliable data for publication.
Suggestions for DOL surveys to employers:
1. Collect the age of employees. The employers themselves, who are interested in career tracking, request this information.
2. From that, the attrition rates can be calculated using various factors available from license renewal data.
3. Can use existing data sets.
Suggestions for ODRVS surveys:
? Compile the data by hospital service area or local community
? Possibly collect state of birth, where educated, and state of first employment to elicit healthcare workforce supply. The surveyors will continue to refine what set of questions are needed to elicit the most likely healthcare workforce supply. [Note: of these questions, secondary/post-secondary education is on the 2006 surveys prepared by ODRVS and state of first employment has been added. ODRVS will continue to consult with DOL analysts to form the final set of questions.]
3. Decisions on Roles and Responsibilities
The members present recommended the following roles for the (previously) established Healthcare Workforce Forum.
? Re-establish the Healthcare Workforce Forum. See categories of members below.
? HHS ? Public Health is the convener and provides staff support to the Health Workforce Forum
? DOL ? Compiles data from employers, performs synthesis and integration of data.
? ODRVS ? Surveys the providers licensed, registered, or certified by the 15 boards specified in PL327 and analyze the data provided.
? DOL/ODRVS ? Jointly responsible for dissemination of the results to the Health Workforce Forum, industry and other interested parties.
The Healthcare Workforce Forum will draw conclusions from the data presented jointly by ODRVS and DOL and will make policy recommendations. The Forum will also engage the healthcare industry, education, and other systems for implementing the recommendations. It will also engage/collaborate with other players in this, e.g., AHEC, etc., and develop a strategy to pursue SUSTAINABLE resources to continue surveys and analysis of results.
From the legislation: ?The HHS shall post the Forum?s annual report and recommendations on its website by December 31st of each year, beginning with December 2006.?
The Health Workforce Forum ? The Department of Health and Human Services shall convene at least annually a health workforce forum to review the report developed under ?256 and discuss health care workforce issues. This forum consists of 15 members:
A. The Governor shall appoint six members as follows:
1. Three must represent postsecondary educational institutions that offer training for skilled health care workers, of which one must represent a private postsecondary educational institution and two must represent public postsecondary educational institutions.
2. One must represent a licensing board identified in 22 MSRA
?256 (8) as revised.
3. One must represent a professional organization that represents
skilled healthcare workers working in the administration of care for patients.
4. One must be a member of the Health Care Workforce Leadership
Group, the predecessor group of the Forum. One-year only term.
5. One must be from the Dept. of Labor and be knowledgeable about
The Department?s workforce data and analysis capabilities.
B. The President of the Senate shall appoint four members as follows:
1. Two must represent employers of skilled healthcare workers
2. One must represent a labor organization that represents skilled health care workers (e.g., nurses)
3. One must represent a professional organization that represents skilled health care workers working in direct patient care.
C. The Speaker of the House of Representatives shall appoint four members as follows:
1. One must represent a labor organization that represents skilled health care workers.
2. One must represent a professional organization that represents skilled health care workers involved in direct patient care
3. Two must represent employers of skilled health care workers.
4. ACTIONS
1. This group will electronically comment on the wording on survey instruments for license renewals. ODRVS will e-mail a copy of the current survey instrument to all. Surveys are to be reviewed and comments returned to ODRVS by OCTOBER 31st.
2. ODRVS will draft the legislative report stating the role of each entity and the plan to meet the intentions of the legislation. This group will provide review and approval of the report. Timeframe is to have this completed by mid-November.
3. Electronically recommend membership to the Health Workforce Forum. See above for categories of members.
4. DOL will do a flow chart of what is needed to accomplish this mission; the DOL role likened to ?air traffic controller.?
5. John and Bob Kelley will draft a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between DOL and HHS-Public Health (Maine CDC) as the mechanism to transfer funds to DOL to support the work.
6. DOL, in collaboration with ODRVS, will develop a timeline for the survey results to feed into the Labor Market Information Services (LMI) model. This will be in preparation for the committee to have reasonable expectations from HHS/DOL efforts.