During a recent roundtable of health care workers at La Clinica, a center in Medford that provides care to medically underserved residents, a theme emerged from many of their concerns: shortages.
Like elsewhere in the state, Southern Oregon needs more health care professionals including physicians, specialists and assistants.
During a visit to Southern Oregon, the new Oregon Health Authority director, Dr. Sejal Hathi, said the state is capable of helping. She said, for example, that Oregon provides help with school loans to encourage more people to study in the health field.
“I will really be thinking intentionally about how can we, as a state, do more to build that pipeline and also just strengthen the capacity of the existing provider workforce,” said Hathi.
Hathi, who was New Jersey’s deputy health commissioner and a former White House senior policy advisor under the Biden administration, discussed potential solutions to the hiring glut at the gathering.
“I think we can do even more to bring partners into the same room to expand the type of apprenticeship programs [and] workforce development programs that I learned of today,” she said.
According to some health centers in the region, reasons for the shortage include clinics not being able to offer higher wages as well as recruits having trouble finding affordable housing.
Staff at La Clinica said their center is growing and able to offer competitive wages. But attracting specialists to the area remains challenging.
There are several bills in Oregon’s short legislative session this year that would help address shortages, including making it easier to hire out-of-state professionals and incentivizing the recruitment of behavioral health workers.
