Medical Facilities coping with labor shortage

The Springfield area's remarkably low unemployment rate is a boon to business, but also a liability for the medical industry.

Local medical operations aggressively seek workers to fill vacancies in approximately 500 job classifications.

"With unemployment hovering around 2 percent locally, we're having the same trouble everyone else is," said Don Anderson, vice president of human resources at Cox Medical Centers.

Opportunities

On the bright side, the situation poses ample opportunity for people interested in the field, he said.

Cox maintains a staff of four interviewers who do nothing but interview as many as they can of about 1,000 applicants per month.

"We hire approximately 110 people per month, ongoing for about the last year," Anderson said. The system normally employs about 7,200.

The biggest reason for the high turnover, he said, is employees moving to other areas. The greatest numbers of applicants are new arrivals to Springfield and "people looking for a change."

Cox has instituted several programs to attract prospective employees, including offering associate and bachelor degrees in nursing as well as training programs in medical transcription and technical support fields such as radiology.

Cox and Ozarks Technical Community College also have joined forces to offer programs for paramedics and patient care assistants.

Radiology

St. John's Health System offers the same types of training programs and now is actively recruiting people to train in radiology, according to Paul Elmore, vice president of human resources. St. John's now employs 6,634 workers.

Elmore cited shortages in experienced registered nurses, radiologists and pharmacists, the particular target of the system's recruiting efforts. He noted, however, that the greatest difficulty is in finding people for entry-level positions such as reception-ist, child care and data entry.

Private clinics

Private clinics face the same challenges. Tammy Mallow, director of business operations at Family Medical Walk-In Clinics, said her facility's biggest problem recently is finding licensed radiology technicians. Clerical help is also difficult to find, she said, because of the clinic's extended hours. "It's hard to get some people to accept the unusual hours."

Mallow said the clinic has to be selective in hiring because "there is a lot more accountability in a small, privately owned practice." The clinic employs 55 to 60 people at three locations in north and south Springfield and Nixa.

Motivation

Reflecting on the overall picture, Mallow said that while the clinic has certainly had bouts with turnover, she's proud of the people who have stuck with the practice.

"People stay at a place because of the environment and the people they work with," she said. "A feeling of belonging will come before (the) dollar amount they receive."

For this reason, Mallow works hard to build loyalty among staff and involve employees in team effort.

The Family Medical Walk-In Clinic is registered with Missouri Works, from which it receives many of its applicants. The Missouri Works Web site is www.works.state.mo.us. Sponsored by the Missouri Division of Labor, it posts job openings and matches qualified applicants to the available positions.

Contact

All three employers use job fairs to make face-to-face contact with prospective employees or trainees. They also use newspaper advertising to attract applicants.

Anderson said Cox recently contacted Montgomery Ward in Springfield to present opportunities to employees who will be displaced by the store's closing.

Elmore assessed St. John's most effective recruitment technique as employee referral. "If an employee says to their friends that St. John's is a great place to work, they listen," he said. "It is the single biggest recruiting tool we have."

Nancy Merry, executive director at Medical Employment Directory of Springfield, stated that the greatest shortage her agency is experiencing is in licensed practical nurses in the clinical environment. Most LPNs tend to work at the local hospitals, she said.

A cycle

She also echoed the concern of other facilities that X-ray technicians are a rare find these days. "We are in a cycle swing where it is hard to find qualified people in this field who are not burned out."

Merry added that OTC, Vatterott College and Rhodes College aggressively train people for the medical field, including displaced factory workers who would like to enter the industry.

Merry said that people coming out of the local colleges are mostly going into clinical situations because they can work both back and front offices. She said there is a great need especially for transcriptionists and competent insurance billers. She said her agency places people in either temporary or permanent positions.