For years we’ve been talking about the critical shortage of home health care workers and the impact it will have on the future of your agency. Now, the crisis is official. The Institute of Medicine, the same folks who told us about how many people die in hospitals every year as a result of medication errors, has now issued a study of the worker shortage.

April 14, 2008 — Experts warned Monday that the United States faces a massive health care shortage that threatens to leave millions of seniors without proper health care within the next three decades.

A report issued by the Institute of Medicine says that medical and nursing schools are training far too few doctors and nurses on how to care for the elderly. At the same time, other workers, such as nurses’ aides and home health workers, remain undertrained and underpaid, the experts say.

“We really feel that this is a crisis,” said John W. Rowe, MD, who chaired the panel issuing the report.

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So it’s now officially a crisis. What are we going to do about it? What is your agency doing to become an “employer of choice,” so that the home care workers who are available will choose to work for you instead of your competitors?

For information on how Leading Home Care can help you with our Strategic Staffing process, visit our web site.