WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

March 9, 2023

written by Jay Johnson, CEO of DRH Health

Workforce development. What is it? From our perspective, it is strategy, it is service, and really, it’s our core mission. One of the great things about healthcare is serving others and living out service to others in our jobs and work. We just need more great people to join us.

We have a difficult challenge in front of us at DRH Health. Currently, out of our 1,200 employees, we have 48 employees that are temporary and working under contract instead of full-time and local employment. These employees come at a significant cost, and as good as many of them are, they come without a commitment to our community. Being local and living local is so key to “buy-in” and making where we live a better place. We often say we want “owners” and not “renters” working here.

We desire to not only be great at providing healthcare, but we want to be a significant force for good in our community. We want to grow our community and be a catalyst for our community’s future. That’s more than just providing healthcare. It is our dream to lift our community and to provide well-paying jobs with the opportunity to grow locally. That’s one of the reasons we hired Lesa Hefner.

Lesa’s job is to meet local high school students and adults looking for a career change and educate them about the opportunities at DRH. We currently have 152 job vacancies, with almost half of those being nurses. We believe investing in the people in our communities is the way to eliminate these vacancies.

We believe healthcare jobs are often overlooked, especially when considering the diversity of opportunities. We all know about the doctors and nurses that work here. But we also need lab technicians, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, food service workers, sterile processing technicians, accountants, front desk clerks, billers, plant and facility technicians, security officers, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians,radiology technicians, and many others. I think you can see there is a lot of opportunity within your local healthcare system.

Have you considered a job in healthcare? If you’d like to learn more, please call Lesa at 580.251.8238.

Article featured in the 2022-2023 WORKFORCE UPDATE - READ the update HERE.