Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/131821
HRO Today Forum The Ailing Healthcare Workforce It's time to focus on the staffs that will care for patients in the new era. By Ralph Henderson Healthcare reform, the biggest transformation in that sector in our nation's history, is fundamentally a workforce-related initiative. Yet you don't hear much very much about the healthcare workforce in the national debate over the complex Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The media focus tends to be on who will receive what benefits and where the money will come from, not on who will deliver the care. But a growing body of research evidence has shown that staffing problems are key factors that affect fundamentals of the industry: [40] HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | APRIL 2013 quality and cost of care; patient safety; length of stay; readmissions; and patient, physician, and staff satisfaction, turnover, and vacancy rates. These issues are at the core of healthcare reform; they must be addressed to bring down high healthcare costs in the United States while raising quality of care for everyone. Now that state and federal governments are only months away from signing up millions of new clients for coverage, attention needs to be focused on preparing the workforce that will care for patients in the new healthcare era.