Northeastern Minnesota Rural Healthcare Taskforce

Economic Impact

The health care industry is a key industry in the economic growth of northeastern Minnesota and the annual economic impact in N.E. MN is $ 1.8 billion dollars. The industry is the largest employer in northeastern Minnesota, with over 18,300 workers and by 2010 will add another 4,500 workers.

Challenges

By 2010, the state will have a shortage of 1.1 million workers, 93,600 health care workers –primarily due to retirements. By 2020, the number of people in Minnesota that will be over 65 will be approximately 950,000, double the number in 2005. In 2005, 3.5 million people are in the Minnesota workforce, 1.5 million are baby boomers. Currently there are 8,000 healthcare job openings in the state. In northeastern Minnesota there are high vacancy rates for nurses, technicians, specialty physicians, and mental health providers. Plus northeastern Minnesota is facing a retirement percent higher than the state’s average and an older population base.

Collaboration, Coordination, Efficiency, Innovation, And Leadership

To meet the workforce challenges of the health care industry relating to; current openings, growth in the industry, replacement workers, and other issues the Iron Range Resources established the Rural Healthcare Taskforce in March 2002. Over 160 leaders from northeastern Minnesota in; healthcare, education, economic development, and state and local officials are tackling the issues relating to the healthcare workforce shortage. We work closely with our state partners/members; Healthcare Education-Industry Partnership, Rural Health Resource Center, Office of Rural Health, Minnesota Area Health Education Center, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, Minnesota Workforce Centers, MNSCU, and Minnesota Hospital Association.

The taskforce has four committees; Education, Hands-On, Web site and Recruitment.

The Education committee- Susan Hyndman – College of St. Scholastica - 218- 733-2244

Has and are expanding nursing programs at local community colleges and has put satellite nursing programs in Ely, Cook and Bigfork. Utilizing the national recognized H1B grant program, they have created a partnership with the Healthcare Education Industry Partnership, workforce centers, healthcare facilities, and education and community leaders, to produce over 30 extra nurses per year for northeastern Minnesota. The committee has also increased the accessibility of health education in rural northeastern Minnesota to meet the healthcare workforce shortage. They have made distant learning an accepted model for (RN) education and have built coalitions with the many partners above.

The Hands On Health committee – Tiffany Anderson – Eveleth Economic Development Authority -218-744 -1396 met with students in the Ely, Hibbing, Grand Rapids and Virginia area. Through a questionnaire, they learned; what students like about health care, what they know about health care, what information should be on our website and what programs, curriculum and activities should be established to link students to healthcare careers. Through this process, the kids developed our website and promotional materials. The committee also met with teachers and counselors in above areas to explain what we were doing to link students to healthcare careers and solicit their help. Working with teachers and counselors, students in grades 8-12 are being link to healthcare careers using the web site. They also are involved in career day programs, job fairs, job shadowing and core curriculum programs.

The Hands On Health committee has worked with the Northeast Area Health Education Center (NAHEC) to produce a report that researched, identified and evaluated programs, activities and events in the northeastern Minnesota that link students to health care occupations such as:

• Job shadowing, internships
• Curriculum
• Career Awareness (Career fairs, quest speakers, field trips, career development programs)
• HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America)
• Service learning
• Health Education Industry partnerships

Gaps are being identified in this study, and the committee will recommend ways to fill those gaps. The study is available on the learntocare.org web site. The committee is also working on a summer health care camp. The application for the camp is available on the learntocare.org web site.

Recruitment committee – Brendan Ashby –Area Health Education Center (Hibbing)-218-362-6153 Rural Health Resource Center (RHRC) and the Northeast Minnesota Area Health Education Center (AHEC) in cooperation with the recruitment committee and area partners have developed a recruitment and workforce development program. The program includes; Health Occupations summer camp, clinical rotation programs, web site enhancements, internships in medicine and pharmacy and recruitment of medical students. Communities wishing to participate in the program will be required to establish a community - based recruitment committee. The program will be under the direction of the recruitment committee.

Key outcomes include:

• Identify current and projected gaps for a variety health professionals through a supply and demand analysis
• Increase knowledge of recruitment and retention strategies to community members
• Place five new physicians on the Iron Range.
• Create awareness of health professionals programs through the learntocare.org web site.
• Inform over 100 health professions students about health care opportunities in Northeastern Minnesota.
• Introduce health careers to 8^th and 9^th graders.

The web site sub committee has developed an innovative website, learntocare.org. The website, which was designed by kids for kids, has received state-wide attention. It includes both educational and fun features. The serious or educational side of the website includes: career searches (iseek), links to scholarships, grants and loans, job shadowing and mentorship programs, local colleges with health care courses, local health care facilities, and salary information for healthcare careers. The fun part is called the interactive quiz; this provides an informative way to introduce kids to health care careers. This includes information about; the economic impact of the health care industry (Bottom Line), information on schooling and cost (Does it really Alma Mater?), information on health care salaries (Show me the money), etc. To promote the website and health care careers, promotional material was distributed to over 24 area high schools in the last two years. Promotional materials include; posters, flyers, mirrors, bookmarks, mirror magnets and pens. The web site, promotional material, speakers, medical career days, internships etc are being used to link kids in grades 8-12 to health care careers in our 24 high schools. . The web site and promotional material is also being used in our workforce centers, community college, and university system to link individuals to health care careers.

Looking Ahead

Education committee will expand distance learning to additional sites and participate in a program to promote a career ladder approach to nursing education. More members will be added to the committee to explore different approach to workforce development for nursing.

Hands on Health committee - in cooperation with the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) the Rural Health Resource Center has researched, identified and analyzed programs and activities that link kids to healthcare careers in Northeastern Minnesota. They will identify the program and activity gaps in the study and make recommendations on how to fill the gaps to enhance future workforce development. They are also will continue working with 8-12 graders, in our 24 high schools, to link them to healthcare careers. Plus they are planning on doing more special projects such as medical career days, job fairs, job shadowing and on-line curriculum programs. The committee is also planning a summer healthcare camp. They will continue to pursue Perkins, Tech Prep and other state and federal funds for their activities. The committee will look to establish a tracking system from K-12 to placements.

Web site committee continues to update the web site and coordinate promotional efforts using the web site, flyers, bookmarks, pens and mirrors. They have just added the above mentioned program and activities study and the summer youth healthcare camp to the web site. They will continue to work closely with the Hands On committee in linking students to healthcare careers and pursue federal and state funding for their projects. The web committee, after the web site update, expected to be completed in August, will be incorporated in the Hands -On committee.

Recruitment committee - the Rural Health Resources Center and the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) in cooperation with the recruitment will continue and enhance their recruitment activities.

Post Secondary committee - discussion are under way to establish this committee to address and enhance health care programs in our post secondary systems.

Other: Discussed Taskforce goals for the upcoming year

• Establish a Post - Secondary committee
• Pursue additional funding as a Taskforce
• Identify and pursue additional funding for committee activities
• Develop a tracking system K-12 through placements
• Send information via email

Other Health Care Initiatives going on in N.E. MN

Regional Health Information Organization -RHIO- Cheryl Stephens - Community Health Information Collaborative- 218-625-5515 recently developed group will take a regional approach to Health Information Technology (HIT). Most of our small rural facilities have not implemented electronic medical records (EMR) the major component of HIT. Discussed goals include; develop a regional strategy for HIT, define common goals to pursue federal, state, foundation and private money to reduce the cost of EMR, and share information and expertise to insure that regional systems interface and are interoperable. The group has decided to focus on EMR and is in the processing of raising funds to do need assessment. This group will work with the Minnesota e-health Initiative to establish HIT. For more information on the Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) or health information technology, go to http://www.medinfosystems.org.

Recruitment Committee Materials

RHRC AHEC Proposal PDF Document

Northeast Minnesota Health Professional Workforce and Community Health Analysis

88 page PDF Download (1.28MB)