The setup
Hosted by Workforce Solutions Capital Area, Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area and the Central Texas Healthcare Partnership, with support from the St. David's Foundation, the State of Healthcare Workforce Forum brought experts from the state and regional level to discuss challenges impacting the health care industry and its workforce Aug. 26.
The Central Texas Healthcare Partnership is made up of three major hospital systems in the area: Ascension Texas, Baylor Scott & White and St.David's HealthCare. Executives from these hospital systems, as well as Workforce Solutions, Austin's Central Health and CommUnityCare, provided insights into how the local health care industry is faring when it comes to the workforce.
Current situation
The growing population of Central Texas is mirrored by a high demand for health care labor force, said Tim Ols, president of the hill country region for Baylor Scott & White. Ols also sits on the Workforce Solutions Rural Captial Area board.
"We never have enough talent to fill all the needs, even discounting the growth that is coming and is here," Ols said. "I think addressing that growth need is going to be critical for for us at the workforce solutions end of the spectrum."
Filling those positions has been made more difficult by the rising cost of child care and higher education, said Dr. Edward Burger, president and CEO of the St. David's Foundation.
"Wrap around supports such as transportation, child care and housing are crucial in empowering students to reach their health care career goals," Burger said. "Addressing these challenges challenges requires multisector collaboration to develop scalable, sustainable and imaginative solutions."
At the same time, the existing health care workforce is aging, with too few graduates entering the workforce to remain at the replacement level, said Ashley King, director of health care partnerships at Workforce Solutions Capital Area.
The details
Citing numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, King said the country will need to add over 200,000 additional nurses each year to keep up with demand.
"We need a great number of them them and we are working on that through our connections and working as a community with not only our health care providers, but also our academic partners," King said.
What's next?
To combat many of these challenges, partnerships are being forged between local secondary and higher education institutions, as well as health care industry entities.
One such partnership, the Central Texas Healthcare Academy, will launch in the fall of 2026.
The program will help students earn credit for prerequisite courses before moving on to industry-specific courses.
