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Future of Healthcare Workers

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4 min

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the challenges faced by health workforces, including understaffing, underfunding, and underappreciation. As the world shifts from fighting COVID-19 on a day-to-day basis to living with endemic COVID-19, public health systems are grappling with where and how to rebuild their workforce and talent pipelines. The public health workforce in the face of the Great Attrition has seen 52% of Gen Z and millennials considering changing employers in 2023. The shortage is likely to increase due to supply-side constraints and evolving demand. By thinking holistically across the healthcare delivery and public health ecosystem, government leaders could rebuild their workforces to effectively serve constituents for decades to come.   

There are four recommendations to retain and develop the workforce. Public health leaders must first meet the expectations of modern workers by creating an effective operating model, for retention, restructuring and advancement. Then operational training or hiring for new types of capabilities. An example of roles like Health IT and analytics specialists, behavioral-health professionals, or communications experts. Additionally, build central and local reserves workforce that is on “warm standby,” of volunteers, and private-sector partners to optimize staff members’ productivity. The last recommendation is streamlined and user-friendly talent pipelines through growing partnership networks.  

Image ModifiedChart from McKinsey & Co article.

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Predictions & Opportunities  

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increasing shortage of healthcare workers, which could drive the need for more digital health solutions to compensate and maintain equity. Retaining healthcare workers will be challenging, and public health leaders must create efficient models, launch retention efforts, and restructure career pathways. Public health systems must reassess existing roles and train or hire new types of competencies like Health IT and analytics specialists or climate change specialists. To attract new talent, robust talent pipelines must be created through growing partnerships and modernizing recruitment functions. Information technology could play a significant role in addressing the shortage of healthcare workers by developing digital health solutions that can augment the existing workforce. Policymakers, technologists, partnerships and CMS should incentivize the growth of the healthcare workforce and invest in technology to improve healthcare delivery to address these challenges.  

The future of CMS and all-inclusive stakeholders could play a critical role in the future of healthcare workers that support CMS’s strategic pillars; by advancing continued equity, fostering workforce excellence and then driving person-centered care innovation to tackle change. CMS stakeholders will need to carefully consider how to address the challenges and opportunities presented by these trends. Here are a few opportunities:  

• Increased Costs: The future demand for health workers is expected to increase significantly in the coming years, and there may not be enough workers to meet that demand. This could potentially lead to increased costs for Medicare and Medicaid, as providers may have to pay higher salaries to attract and retain workers. CMS will require foresight planning and partnerships to predict cost impacts and offset those effects.  
• New Workforce Training: As the industry shifts towards more value-based care, policymakers may need to consider investing in training and education programs for new healthcare workers and capabilities to ensure they have the necessary skills and knowledge to provide high-quality care.   
• New Funding Strategies: As demand for healthcare services continues to grow, policymakers may need to consider strategies to address the shortage of healthcare workers, such as increasing funding and building new investment partnerships for workforce development programs or implementing policies to attract more workers to the field.  
• Expand the technology space: As technology continues to play a larger role in healthcare delivery, policymakers and information technologists will need to consider policies that promote the adoption of new technologies, telemedicine and ensure that healthcare workers are trained to use them effectively. For example, telemedicine could allow providers to reach patients in remote areas, and technology could help to automate certain tasks and make healthcare more efficient. 

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Chart from McKinsey & Co article.

Click on the image for the complete article.

Topics To Explore

In collaboration with relevant stakeholders, the McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) is interested in exploring long-term questions such as: 

• How can societies plan, build, and retain an appropriately structured healthcare workforce across professions and geographies? 
• What are the most promising combinations of human capabilities and enabling technologies for specific care settings (e.g., algorithm-supported medical decision-making, hardware- and software-based enhancement of elderly engagement, participation, and care)? 
• How can organizations leverage the power of data- and technology-enabled care to improve patient experience and outcomes in line with their personalized needs? 

For the complete article: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/care-for-the-caretakers-building-the-global-public-health-workforce 

For the complete article: https://www.mckinsey.com/mhi/focus-areas/healthcare-worker-capacity 

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