Hospital construction triggers hiring plans

Hospital systems Mercy and CoxHealth have nearly $400 million in capital projects and investments to expand operations in the works, and with those plans come a need for staffing. In all, the health care providers expect to create at least 350 new positions during the next several years.

Beginning this week, human resources officials for Mercy are hosting a hiring event to help secure roughly 240 employees to staff the $115 million Mercy Orthopedic Hospital approaching completion in September.

Tanya Marion, regional vice president of human resources for Mercy Springfield Communities, said another 50 full-time workers are required to fill its $28 million Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital when it is expected to open in April 2014. Another $30 million is planned for a future Mercy Clinic in Branson, though Marion said the system hasn’t yet determined those hiring needs.

“We have already started to hire for key positions, and then we’ll be hiring for the majority of our positions,” Marion said of the May 8–9 hiring event for the orthopedic hospital.

At the Missouri Career Center 8:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m., Marion said Mercy would be recruiting clinical positions such as registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists, as well as patient access representatives, laboratory assistants, environmental and food services professionals and surgical assistants.

“These are all new positions to the community. Though we do expect some of our existing co-workers may choose to transfer into some of these openings, we would still have the need to backfill those current roles,” Marion said.

With CoxHealth planning a $130 million patient tower at Cox South and an investment of about $90 million in facility and technology upgrades in Branson during the next seven years – which includes a donation of $25 million to the Skaggs Foundation – the health system has its own hiring needs, though those plans are less firm.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the top nine occupations based on average annual compensation are in the health care field. Top paying jobs include anesthesiologists, No. 1 at $232,830 per year; surgeons, No. 2 at $230,540; general internists, No. 5 at $191,520; and family and general practitioners, No. 8 at $180,850.

The overall jobs picture is somewhat mixed, however, according to the 2013 U.S. Bank Small Business Annual Survey, released April 29.

The survey polled 3,210 small businesses with $10 million or less in annual revenue during the first quarter of 2013, including 201 Missouri firms.

In the Show-Me State, 21 percent of business owners expect to increase staff during the next year, compared to 16 percent across the U.S., but 53 percent of Missouri business owners think the economy is still in a recession, compared to 43 percent nationally.

Both in the state and across the nation, two-thirds of small-business operators say they are unlikely to make capital expenditures in the next year.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Missouri’s personal income increased 3 percent in 2012 to $235.1 billion, ranking the state No. 20 nationwide. Per capita income was $39,049 last year, below the national average of $42,693. Compared to its surrounding states, half of Missouri’s neighbors recorded higher per capita personal income: Illinois, $44,815; Nebraska, $43,143; Kansas, $41,835; and Iowa, $42,126.

CoxHealth Senior Vice President for Human Resources John Hursh said no firm plans for hiring have been set, but he expects between 50 and 100 new full-time workers to be hired for its 310,000-square-foot patient tower in south Springfield.

“Anytime you add on to the footprint of your campus, there is always a certain amount of maintenance and environmental services staff, as well,” Hursh said.

He said it is too soon to say if investments in the Branson area through the recently established merger with Skaggs Regional Medical Center would result in a net of new physicians in that area, though it could add up to 100 physicians and staff during the next several years.

CoxHealth and Mercy combined currently employ more than 18,000 professionals.

Mercy’s Marion said normal hiring challenges include finding qualified registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists.

She said Mercy has performed targeted marketing statewide or in places such as California where there is a higher concentration of qualified workers.

“There are a limited number of people who work within that capacity in our area and so often we do have to look outside of our area. When we can get nurses or therapists or physicians here, once they see the area, they are sold,” Marion said, noting HR staff tours of Springfield are fairly common.

As the hospitals build up their hands-on caregivers, officials say they are reducing staffing in support services.

At the end of April, Mercy Springfield Communities laid off 39 business operations and printing professionals. Spokeswoman Sonya Kullmann said the move was necessary as Mercy seeks to eliminate redundancies systemwide, particularly in the area of billing.

CoxHealth’s Hursh said demands to be as efficient as possible are real across the health care industry.

“What’s happening in health care – and you saw it in this last week with Mercy – is that as we face health care reform and changes in revenue, which are decreases and not increases in revenue, we’re going to be pressed to deliver care to more people more efficiently,” Hursh said. “What that may mean is we have growth in some areas of health care – patients on the floor have to have certain levels of care and that area will grow – but support services will probably shrink in the future as we find ways to work more efficiently.”

Hursh said he doesn’t expect any layoffs at Cox, but he believes the company would likely work through attrition and not replace certain support staff.

Hursh agrees with Marion that RNs and physical and occupational therapists are in high demand, but he added that pharmacists and laboratory technicians likely would continue to be positions in high demand.

“People who are looking for careers, that’s where they ought to be looking,” Hursh said.[[In-content Ad]]