Following one of his announcements in a State of the Union message a week ago, Gov. Tony Evers on Monday created a task force of Cabinet members and outside experts to investigate Wisconsin's health care worker shortage.
Lt. Gov. Sarah Rodriguez, who worked as an emergency room nurse and in health policy and public health before entering politics, will chair the task force. Its primary purpose is to develop proposals that will help shape the health and workforce agenda in the state's 2025-27 budget. The task force's report is expected to be submitted on Sept. 1, and the administration plans to submit a proposed state budget in February 2025.
“We want to make sure people have access to quality care, regardless of their zip code,” Rodriguez said Monday after a late afternoon tour of Sauk Prairie Hospital in Prairie du Sac. “And we're going to look at solutions to make sure we address those workforce shortages and make sure people can get care in their own communities.”
Her visit, along with Evers, Rodriguez, Department of Workforce Development (DWD) Secretary-designate Amy Pechacek, and Department of Health Services (DHS) Secretary-designate Kirsten Johnson, will be taking part in the Fox Valley in Appleton. It concluded a day-long event that began with a press conference at the Institute of Technology.
Talent loss in nursing and other medical fields
Evers announced the creation of the task force and cited a 2023 Wisconsin Hospital Association report showing job openings jumped from 5.3% in 2020 to 9.9% in 2021. May 2022 Report Wisconsin predicts there will be a shortage of 20,000 nurses by 2040.
The shortage of medical workers is spreading across the country. Evers' announcement comes as the National Council of State Boards of Nursing said 100,000 nurses have quit their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic and about 900,000 will leave the health care profession by 2027. cited the report.
The task force was formed after Mr. Evers unsuccessfully tried to win support from the Republican majority in Congress with a workforce proposal focused on health care.
Proposes a special legislative bill to address child care and other workforce-related issues after most of the governor's original workforce-related proposals were removed from the final state budget for 2023-25 did. It includes a $100 million proposal to support grants for health care worker training and address other barriers that keep people out of the workforce, such as access to child care. It was included. An additional $60 million in this package was to be earmarked for six of his other medical training proposals.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) completely rewrote Evers' special session bill, removing these and other proposals. After the bill passed both chambers along party lines, Evers vetoed the outcome.
Following Monday's Appleton news conference, Mr. Evers and two Cabinet members visited Gateway Technical College in Kenosha and Southwest Technical College Health Sciences Center in Fenimore.
wide range of topics
Before heading to Sauk Prairie Hospital, Rodriguez visited the Medical College of Wisconsin's Central Wisconsin Campus in Wausau.
At the hospital, Sean Larch, CEO of parent company Sauk Prairie Healthcare, took Rodriguez on a tour of the building and stopped by to talk with nurses and the hospital director.
A roundtable discussion with several managers followed, highlighting efforts to recruit diverse professionals to rural communities and some of the ways Sauk Prairie has been working to close the employment gap. Rodriguez said challenges unique to rural hospitals are an important part of the picture.
Rodriguez also spoke to the assembled managers about the efforts the Evers administration has helped launch to address the employment gap. One is the UW-Madison and Wisconsin Department of Health Nursing Pilot Apprenticeship Program, which allows certified nursing assistants (CNAs) to take classes and receive clinical training while receiving a salary, a requirement for state-licensed apprenticeships. .
“They will eventually be able to become registered nurses without any debt,” Rodriguez said. Many healthcare professionals try to “ladder” their careers by earning a low-level certification, such as a CNA license, and then studying for more advanced certifications, which can be discouraging. She observed that the workload could be discouraging for some potential health care workers. I can't even step onto the first step.
“I can't imagine trying to go to nursing school while working full time,” Rodriguez said.
In an interview after the debate, Rodriguez said the new task force aims to gain a broader perspective on both the scope of the health worker shortage, its causes and remedies.
“What we really wanted to do was make sure we had information available from different areas of the medical field,” Rodriguez said. “Because we know, and we heard today, that there is a problem within nursing. But there is also a problem with surgical technology. When you talk to dentists, you see that they hire dental hygienists. I can see that you are struggling with this.”
The task force will “ensure that we are communicating with all people across Wisconsin” to address a variety of health care issues.
The task force will include representatives from universities and colleges, as well as a wide range of medical professionals. After identifying more details about staffing shortages in various medical professions, Rodriguez said the task force will “look for some innovative solutions that are happening in Wisconsin and recommend them to the governor.” Stated.
Rodriguez emphasized: 2022 State Law A possible future policy would allow veterans trained in certain medical fields to practice in Wisconsin while awaiting licensure. “All of these types of solutions are on the table for implementation to help address the shortages that we have,” she said.
Recommendations can be about new laws or budget proposals, but they can also lead to practices that the government can implement directly. Rodriguez said Johnson and Pechacek will co-chair a task force “to ensure that if there is an administrative solution, it can be implemented within the department.”
One measure that has repeatedly failed is expanding Medicaid in Wisconsin, known as BadgerCare, under the Affordable Care Act. In Wisconsin, the program is primarily available only to people with incomes below the federal poverty guidelines. In exchange for expanding the program to include people with incomes up to 138% of the poverty guidelines, the federal government would pay states additional subsidies.
Republican leaders on the Congressional Joint Finance Committee have repeatedly blocked Mr. Evers' attempts to accept the expansion.
Rodriguez said he would like to see that change because Medicaid expansion “brings billions of dollars to the state of Wisconsin that we can use to support our health care overall.” “So it makes a lot of sense that we need to expand BadgerCare.”
Rodriguez said he believes the task force can make a difference, even though the Legislature previously rejected Evers' proposal.
“This is an urgent issue we face here in Wisconsin. People in our community know that we don't have the level of staffing that we need,” she said. .
“So we need to address this issue now so people can get the care they need,” she added. “And this is a bipartisan issue. We all need access to health care at some point, so we need to implement these solutions today so we can fill that gap tomorrow. .”
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