One of the top three issues facing hospital and health system leadership continues to be a healthcare workforce to sustain Wisconsin’s nation-leading healthcare system. As such, WHA has made public policies that expand the educational pipeline and better utilizing our current healthcare workforce a top priority. WHA’s workforce and team-based care agendas are aimed at all in-demand areas of the health care workforce, from allied health professionals (surgical technicians, medical assistants, pharmacy techs, etc.) to advanced practice clinicians to physicians.
 
For instance, WHA has partnered with Wisconsin’s two medical schools to advance a new matching-grant program for hospitals and health systems interested in expanding Graduate Medical Education capacity in their community. To date, the program has created eight brand new residency programs and provided funding to expand nine existing residency programs – in total, providing residency training opportunities for 151 new physicians in Wisconsin who would have otherwise likely trained in another state.
 
WHA also championed proposals, modeled after the successful GME initiative above, to provide resources for rural hospitals seeking to increase training capacity for advanced practice clinicians and allied health professionals in rural communities. WHA has also provided public policy leadership in areas of regulatory reform related to team-based care, especially as the role and utility of health care providers evolves with advances in training, education and technology.
 
In addition to WHA’s federal and state legislative advocacy, WHA also publishes a frequently-cited annual workforce report that is utilized by policymakers and legislators to justify and support public policies that support the needs of our state’s hospital and health system workforce.
 

• Graduate Medical Education
• Workforce
• Team-Based Care