County Executive Bello Announces New Efforts to Improve Health Care Career Pipeline
April 27, 2021
County partners with MCC to provide advanced training and education to accelerate job growth and advancement within Monroe Community Hospital’s nursing staff.
Monroe County Executive Adam Bello was joined Monday by Wade Norwood, CEO of Common Ground Health; Alyssa Tallo, executive health director of Monroe Community Hospital; CSEA Regional President Steve Healy; and Todd Oldham, vice president of Economic Development, Workforce and Career Technical Education at Monroe Community College to announce a series of measures being implemented that are aimed at improving staffing retention and recruitment at Monroe Community Hospital (MCH). As part of the announcement, a new long-term care task force will be convened through Common Ground Health to study opportunities to address the communitywide nursing home staffing crisis.
“Like so many things, the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t create the staffing crisis we’re seeing in long-term care facilities and nursing homes throughout Monroe County and New York State. Instead, it exacerbated an existing problem that can no longer go unaddressed,” said County Executive Bello. “My administration and the leadership at Monroe Community Hospital have been working together over the last several months to develop a strategy to improve the pipeline of nursing and support staff at MCH, and are committed to ensuring the residents of our facility continue to receive the best service and care possible.”
As an initial step to address nursing staff turnover at MCH, Monroe County implemented pay increases for CNAs, LPNs and RNs; created leadership positions for additional growth opportunities for current and future employees; and improved new employee recruitment with the creation of a new nursing recruiter position. The County administration received approval for these pay increases and the creation of the new positions from the Civil Service Commission on April 8, 2021.
Todd Oldham, Ed.D.
To further attract new talent and improve the career pipeline at MCH, County Executive Bello also announced a new partnership with MCC to provide advanced training and education to accelerate job growth and advancement within MCH’s nursing staff. This initiative would be bolstered by MCC’s Mpower Healthcare program and would create a career ecosystem at MCH, giving employees the opportunity to grow their career and advance within the organization.
“Without the support of Monroe County and local providers, we would not be able to create programs like Mpower Healthcare. Through this partnership, MCC has trained over 600 new workers for critical clinical support roles in our community,” said Todd Oldham, vice president for Economic Development, Workforce and Career Technical Education at MCC.
Recent reports suggest that upwards of 500 jobs are available in long-term care and nursing home facilities throughout Monroe County at any given time. Staff retention and pay scale concerns are not unique to MCH and have been well-documented over the last several years. To address this issue on a long-term basis, County Executive Bello has asked Common Ground Health to convene a long-term care task force to identify critical issues contributing to the staff turnover crisis felt in facilities throughout Monroe County.