Health care needs more workers. What’s the Rx?

Time to read: 5 minutes

Key takeaways

• America’s looming shortage of doctors and nurses is colliding with rising demand, putting unprecedented strain on health care systems and employees.
• Creative solutions—like workforce training partnerships, smart technology, and standout benefits—are helping innovative health care organizations recruit, retain, and support essential talent.
• Why this matters: The stakes are personal. Health care employers need new ideas to alleviate the workforce strain while delivering the quality care their patients and communities deserve.

DR. ELENA¹ HASN'T taken a full weekend off in three months. The sole geriatric specialist at her community hospital, Dr. Elena carries a patient load designed for three physicians. “I’m not counting the overtime hours,” she says. "But I am counting the patients who say they wait months for appointments."

Dr. Elena’s experience epitomizes America’s health care talent crisis—where record numbers of Americans are turning 65 every day, longevity continues to increase, and health care professionals are leaving their jobs faster than they can be replaced. Over the next five to 10 years, experts predict the United States will have 300,000 fewer doctors and nurses than we need,² just as nearly 80% of elderly Americans will be managing multiple chronic conditions³— a perfect storm of high demand and inadequate supply.

The health care industry has long been aware of these trends, but the Covid pandemic, mounting burnout, and other macroeconomic factors have heightened the urgency and exacerbated the challenges to retain and recruit talent. Five years since the pandemic began, many institutions are realizing the talent shortage isn’t improving, and the thousands of health care professionals like Dr. Elena can’t keep picking up the slack for much longer.

According to a recent TIAA Institute study, “Towards creating a sustainable U.S. health care system,” the path forward can’t rely upon traditional recruiting strategies.⁴ Instead, institutions need to find new avenues for sourcing talent, use emerging technology to increase productivity without contributing to burnout, and offer employee benefits that are too good to resist. Organizations making progress in these challenging times are innovating their recruitment and retention, technology, and benefits.

Get creative to recruit—and retain—health care talent

One of the best examples in workforce development comes from Futuro Health, a national nonprofit based in California that helps health care employers develop local talent for their allied health workforce, in roles such as medical assistants, phlebotomists, pharmacy technicians, nursing assistants, surgical technicians, and community health workers.

“Health care employers who deploy community benefit dollars toward workforce development can create a win-win-win,” says Van Ton-Quinlivan, CEO of Futuro Health. “Employers get the talent they need and demonstrate they are in service to their communities—especially important for nonprofit hospitals. Learners gain employment and economic mobility. The biggest winner is the community at large, which gains access to good jobs and better health care locally.”

Currently operating in 10 states, Futuro Health is widely celebrated for its ability to connect untapped talents in underserved communities with low-cost or tuition-free credentialing programs for the allied health care roles employers need most.

“We start by engaging with health care employers to prioritize their workforce needs,” Ton-Quinlivan says. “Next, we tap into our network of education partners to source quality training programs. Then we campaign within the community to broadly invite applicants who have the desire to serve others.”

A recent $10.2 million grant from the Elisabeth C. DeLuca Foundation enabled Futuro Health to train and credential 2,000 new allied and behavioral health workers in Connecticut and Florida—all without adding debt.

“The big lesson we offer employers is that workforce development is a team sport. Employers don’t need to solve these shortages on their own—especially for allied health roles,” says Ton-Quinlivan.

Add capacity without causing burnout

Known as a leader in medical advancements, Johns Hopkins Medicine in Maryland has embraced new technology for productivity gains to improve patient care without adding to staff burnout. In one example, Johns Hopkins Hospital became an early adopter of Abridge AI Scribe, a tool that listens and transcribes doctor-patient visits into draft notes for medical files, reducing hours of documentation time for clinicians while enhancing patient care.

“Though some medical staff adopted this tool with some skepticism, many describe it as a nice first draft,” says Dr. Dan Polsky, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business and Director of the Hopkins Business of Health Initiative. “This AI tool saves them time, and that’s more time they can spend with patients.”

In the not-too-distant future, Polsky sees an emergent culture where advancements in technology will lead to lower-cost “consumer-elevated” health care for services that don’t necessarily need a provider. Think of AI-driven evidence-based tests that lead to early detection or rejection of a medical condition.

“If people use AI to change risky behavior, we could see fewer patients in emergency rooms for heart attacks,” Polsky says. “AI-aided home-screening may help them address developing illnesses earlier, before they become expensive and difficult to treat.”

Put employee retention ahead of recruiting

As the chief human resources officer at UAB Medicine, Alabama’s largest employer, John Petrov focuses on retaining staff first, recruitment second, and retirement benefits that offer peace of mind. “We have to nurture and support the people we already have,” says Petrov. “Keeping our current workforce is job one, and recruitment supports that.”

The effects of Covid on health care staffing turnover were a wake-up call for many institutions. UAB Medicine was no exception. Its largest facility, UAB Hospital, saw historically high levels of turnover in its radiology department, leaving them few alternatives beyond bringing in expensive contract “traveler” allied health professionals. “Over the course of Covid, a lot of organizations had to rely on travelers, but it’s not a long-term solution,” Petrov says.

A believer in structured career development, Petrov and his team began working with the radiology department staff on career planning and career development to foster retention. They also identified and partnered with a community college to offer a radiology tech certificate program, wholly inside UAB Hospital, as an incubator for future radiology talent and hiring.

Within the past year, their efforts paid off, starting with a 50% reduction in travelers. The vacancy rate in radiology techs also declined from 31% to less than 20%. Overall, UAB saw a 32% reduction in turnover and annual savings of nearly $1 million.

Petrov also wanted to upgrade UAB Medicine’s retirement benefits to enhance their long-term employee retention efforts. After salary, benefits rank highest for health care workers, according to recent research from TIAA Institute.⁵

“With retirement benefits, we can never do enough for our people, so we must do all we can,” Petrov says. In 2024, UAB Medicine changed its retirement plan to embed a lifetime income option into its default investment with TIAA’s RetirePlus^®.

“The retirement income piece in RetirePlus is peace of mind that employees won’t have to worry about having stable income in their golden years,” says Petrov. “When our employees feel secure about their futures, they stay, and that helps our institution thrive.”