Washington, DC – The American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), the nation’s largest association representing providers of quality long term care, praised and thanked U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) today for introducing the Retooling the Health Care Workforce for an Aging America Act of 2008.
In a December 10 letter to Senator Kohl, Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, AHCA/NCAL President and CEO Bruce Yarwood said, “On behalf of the 1.5 million frail, elderly, and disabled patients and residents we care for each day, we commend you for offering strategies to resolve the existing and projected shortages of the essential health care personnel who provide the life-sustaining care to these most vulnerable populations on a daily basis.”
In thanking Senator Kohl, Yarwood detailed the dire situation in regard to the long term care profession’s workforce shortage, and noted AHCA’s recently-released Nursing Position Vacancy and Turnover Study estimated that nearly 110,000 health care personnel full-time equivalents (FTE) were needed nationwide to fill vacant nursing positions. Of those vacancies, the study found, approximately 19,400 were for registered nurses and 24,200 for licensed practical nurses, while the significant majority was for Certified Nurse Assistants (CNAs) – nearly 60,300 open positions.
The AHCA/NCAL leader noted that a recently released Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, “Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce,” concluded that there is an urgent need to prepare the health care workforce to better serve our aging population. The study found less than one percent of all nurses are certified gerontological nurses, even as the population of older people is on track to double by 2030.
Absent any change, by 2020, the supply of nurses in the United States will fall 29 percent below projected requirements – resulting in a severe shortage of nursing expertise relative to the demand for care of medically complex, frail older adults.
“AHCA/NCAL is gravely concerned about these shortages since the continued success of the long term care profession’s quality improvement initiatives is contingent upon a stable supply of well-trained workers and adequate, stable funding levels,” Yarwood continued. “Your thoughtful legislation takes important steps in addressing our nation’s health care workforce recruitment and retention challenges.”
Yarwood highlighted the recent Bureau of Labor Statistics congressional testimony, which stated that health care employment rose by 34,000 in November 2008 alone and by 341,000 year to date, specifically in nursing homes, hospitals, residential care facilities, and physician offices. He concluded, “The policies in Retooling the Health Care Workforce for an Aging American Act of 2008 are extremely timely and relevant give that health care is one of the few business sectors where employment is increasing during this economic uncertainty.”
The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) represent nearly 11,000 non-profit and proprietary facilities dedicated to continuous improvement in the delivery of professional and compassionate care provided daily by millions of caring employees to 1.5 million of our nation's frail, elderly and disabled citizens who live in nursing facilities, assisted living residences, subacute centers and homes for persons with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. For more information, please visit www.ahca.org or www.ncal.org.