Happy New Year
We have finally entered 2017 - a new year which is always a good thing. Some look back on 2016 and are nostalgic for the past. Others are glad 2016 is over and are looking hopefully to 2017. We are different and our opinions differ. That is what makes us vibrant and strong.. I will report, however, that the concerted national effort to ensure that Betty White survived 2016 was successful.
I hope that everyone has had a little time in the last few weeks to rest and relax with family and friends and to recharge batteries for the next quarter, semester, and year. Actually, I am sure that most of you worked through the “break” on looming grant deadlines, article submissions and resubmissions, class preparations, lecture notes, case studies, letters of recommendation, and many other important functions. Work does not seem to diminish just because of the holidays.
AUPHA staff has had a short break but we, too, have been busy. We are in the middle of a major data conversion, communication system upgrades, planning for Leaders Conference and Annual Meeting planning for a few of our efforts during break. We are excited because the upcoming year will be a good one for AUPHA I am pretty sure. We have great focus. We will need it, however, because healthcare will likely absorb another round of reform. That is not a political statement because reform and/or change would have occurred irrespective of which party controls the White House and Congress. Faced with these recurrent changes, we must again address how to adjust our curriculum content to assure our students graduate well prepared for future challenges.
We are responsible for preparing individuals that will be responsible for key leadership and management roles in the largest, fastest growing, and most complex components of our economy. Their collective ability to steer organizations and practices through these rapidly changing times is a strong testament to all of the good work you do. As the New Year begins, take some time to reflect on the importance of what we do in these times. Now, more than ever, our efforts are vital.
As an example, the November employment numbers came out in December and we were all heartened to see job growth continue at the national level. The economy has produced almost 2.3 million jobs in the last year and 16.3 million jobs since November 2010 according to BLS Establishment Data. The unemployment rate fell to 4.6%, however, the civilian labor force participation rate and the employment to population ratios continue to be too high. What is interesting is that the healthcare sector has been a major driver of that national increase in employment. In the last year, nearly 18% of the job growth was in the private healthcare sectors. Over the last six years, our industry has accounted for 11.2% of total job growth and most of that in the ambulatory care sector. These percentages represent 406,000 new workers in the last year and 1.8 million new workers since November 2010. These jobs consist of innovative programs, in new service areas, aimed at improving the health of many more Americans. Our graduates are responsible for this growth.
Some might argue that growing numbers of workers in our industry is not necessarily a good thing but a sign of continuing inefficiency. Those arguments ignore the substantial increases in efficiency, improvements in quality and expansion in access that have occurred in recent years. Go back a decade or two and look at hospital length of stay, wrong site surgery, expansion of ambulatory surgery and other services, nosocomial events in hospitals and many more changes that often reflect greater efficiency while improving quality. Naturally, many of these changes were championed by our clinical colleagues but our graduates were there encouraging these changes to occur and providing the appropriate resources and culture of change. You were responsible for assuring that these leaders understood how to manage and the importance of controlling costs, improving quality and expanding access to care. Further, most all of this was done in a highly ethical manner. Without the fundamental competencies that we transfer to our students, one class, one lecture and one office hour at a time, the entire healthcare infrastructure would be at risk. In my career, I can only think of the time around the introduction of DRGs in the early 1980s that strong, competent leaders were more essential to the health of our industry.
As you return to jobs and careers we all love this week, keep in mind how vital your work is to the future of health and healthcare. It may even be contributing to the economic engine that makes our nation strong.
Jerry