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Health Care: Medical Field Has a Healthy Future

Posted on: Sunday, 29 January 2006, 18:00 CST

By Edward Gately, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Jan. 29--There's literally never been a better time in the East Valley to pursue a career in health care.

With continued, explosive population growth, existing hospitals are expanding and new hospitals will be opening to handle the everincreasing demand for health care services. If you're a trained health care professional, you're wanted, and if you're a licensed professional, recruiters will bend over backwards to hire you.

Catholic Healthcare West not only is recruiting for Chandler Regional Hospital, but is in the process of staffing a new hospital -- Mercy Gilbert Medical Center -- scheduled to open this summer.

Mercy Gilbert will open in June with 88 beds and another 100 beds planned, said Jo Beth Crawford, vice president of human resources at Chandler Regional Hospital and Mercy Gilbert Medical Center.

"We'll probably start with 350 to 400 (employees) for those 88 beds," she said. "We started with the hard-to-fill positions obviously, the nursing and the technologist areas. Those licensed positions are really the most difficult and we've done well there."

There is a shortage of qualified candidates to fill licensed positions, such as radiology technologists, medical technicians, pharmacists and nurses, Crawford said. However, recruiting physicians for Mercy Gilbert hasn't been a problem, she said.

"There are a lot of people who are interested," she said. "When you're sitting in Gilbert and Chandler, that's pretty attractive to a lot of people. They're very fastgrowing communities. They offer a lot to families. The location is great, it's close to everything."

Crawford and her colleagues recruit through advertising and taking part in job fairs locally and across the country.

"We've been to Colorado, Illinois and New York, and there are some states that Arizona recognizes as a compact state," Crawford said. "They will recognize their license so there's no delay for them to start working."

Mercy Gilbert also is attracting health care professionals from other Valley hospitals, she said.

"Having everything the latest and greatest technology is attractive to a lot of people," Crawford said. "I feel comfortable that we'll have a good hospital staffed for the community."

In Scottsdale, Scottsdale Healthcare will begin construction on its third hospital -- Scottsdale Healthcare Thompson Peak, this spring.

"We will need to recruit and to fill positions at that hospital when it opens," said Keith Jones, Scottsdale Healthcare's media relations manager. "We've got some innovative programs in place to help not only recruit, but retain existing employees and develop our staff from within."

Scottsdale Healthcare Thompson Peak will be the first new hospital built north of Loop 101, he said. Both of Scottsdale Healthcare's existing hospitals already have been expanded to accommodate population growth in the East Valley and north East Valley, he said.

"We've got partnerships with several nursing schools, community colleges and universities to help our staff develop professionally, and earn degrees and advanced degrees, which helps to fill positions down the road," Jones said. "There's very wideranging types of clinical positions to help meet that demand that we experience with the growth of our facilities."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Tribune

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