How to fill the sick care talent supply chain

According to a WSJ analysis, The U.S. economy has been running, improbably, with an unemployment rate under 4% for nearly two years.?

That isn’t just a holdover from pandemic bottlenecks, when employers let millions of people go and then struggled to find workers when demand roared back, economists and business leaders say. It is a storm that has been brewing for decades, flaring up most recently in the form of worker strikes at automakers and airlines. Labor shortages are turning into a long-term labor crisis that could push wages and turnover higher.?

Work experts have warned for years that the combination of baby boomer retirements, low birthrates, shifting immigration policies and changing worker preferences is leaving U.S. employers with too few workers to fill job openings. While the labor market is softening, none of those factors are expected to change dramatically in the coming years.

Year after year, pundits predict a physician shortage. Meanwhile, the number of applicants to medical schools is at a historic high and the number of active physicians per capita in the US is rising.

However, as noted, those responsible for creating the sick care workforce and managing the talent supply chain have 3 options: “They can plan for it, they can do nothing, or they can have hope.” In other words, persevere, pivot or punt.

The demographic issues have been staring us in the face for years:

1. Dropping boomer labor force participation
2. Dropping birth rates
3. Total labor force participation
4. Rising average annual earnings
5. Rising numbers of foreign-born workers in the US workforce
6. The aging population

The sick care talent supply chain starts in pre-school and extends through graduate level education and training, a span of 25 years. Consequently, it will take a short term and a longer-term strategy to fill the gaps.

Planners should:

1. Change immigration policy
2. Provide opportunities for boomers to re-enter or continue working in sick care
3. Support lower income, first generation to college student success
4. Change medical student application and selection criteria and processes
5. Graduate students at every level with an entrepreneurial mindset
6. Incorporate technologies that have the data driven, proven ability to increase productivity
7. Restructure job roles and responsibilities
8. Reduce the demand for care
9. Reconcile the conflict between profits and effectively serving the needs of patients
10. Transition from sick care to healthcare

Sick care is a wicked problem and the solutions will require multi-systems re-engineering.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack and Editor of Digital Health Entrepreneurship