NEW MODELS NEEDED
Health professionals and educators are dealing with industry-wide changes By Evan Marczynski evan@bbjtoday.com
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egional health care leaders no longer ask if their industry will see change in the near future. They already know the answer. Practitioners face rising costs, as well an aging workforce that could lead to shortages in registered nurses and home-care aides within the next 15 years. With that, Whatcom County’s health care and health education sectors are preparing for the new care models they’re certain will come. “The elements of health care reform have to happen, no matter what view you take on it,” said Cindy Burman-Woods, a workforce special projects director at Whatcom Community College. “The costs are driving it. Things have to change.” More than 80 regional industry leaders met last May to plot the shape of the future northwest Washington health care workforce. They targeted challenges, including the unfolding federal health care law, the industry’s use of technology, the growing role played by home care and patients’ families, and the shift of focus that emphasizes preventive treatment. Workforce shortages are among the more imminent concerns. Registered nurses in Washington state are 55-59 years old on average. Researchers said that indicates a looming lack of nurses who can continue to work over the next several decades. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2027, nearly 90,000 registered nurses will be needed in Washington state— currently there are about 46,300. A dearth of between 30,000 and
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October 2012
URBAN MINI-PARKS, P.4
IMPACT STUDY TO START FOR GATEWAY TERMINAL Public comment period is now open for the proposed coal-shipping facility By Evan Marczynski evan@bbjtoday.com
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Nursing programs across the state, including the one at Whatcom Community College in Bellingham, are preparing for an increased demand for registered nurses. PHOTOS COURTESY OF WHATCOM COMMUNITY COLLEGE
50,000 home-care aides is also projected by 2030. The aging workforce mirrors Washington’s growing population. The state is expected to add nearly 1.7 million new residents by 2030, a growth rate of about 26 percent, according to the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center, one of six federally funded rural health centers.
One in five of those new residents will be at least 65. An older population could place stronger demands on Medicare and Medicaid. Health providers also expect to see higher rates of chronic illness.
Effects felt outside health industry Company owners who provide
health insurance should expect to see change, too, said Larry Thompson, executive director of Whatcom Alliance for Healthcare Access, a Bellingham-based nonprofit. With federal reform and state initiatives to create new systems of health coverage, the medical insurance market is about to shift dramatically, Thompson said. The impact, he added, could amplify the already rising costs of care. “Costs continue to be a huge concern of employers,” Thompson said. “There is a very pervasive feeling in the health care leadership of the community that they need to get the costs under control.” Whatcom health leaders are in early stages of creating a county-
fter more than a year of meetings, reports, national news coverage, protests and marketing campaigns, the process to decide what should be included in an environmental impact study for the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal is about to begin. County, state and federal officials are seeking public comment on the scope of an environmental impact statement that Whatcom County, the Washington Department of Ecology and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan to jointly prepare for the proposed coal and bulk-cargo terminal at Cherry Point. Pacific International Terminals, a subsidiary of SSA Marine of Seattle, has proposed to build the Gateway Pacific Terminal on the industrial site near Ferndale
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