The demand for health care has seen little change in recent years. Even when faced with the worst economic downturn since the early 20^th century, the industry has continued to thrive. However, for those who may just be entering the health care industry or are looking for new opportunities, a little extra help never hurt – right?

That’s why it’s nice to keep up with online resources such as CareerBuilder.com to receive accurate career information relative to any career industry. 

Recently, CareerBuilder.com released a list of the fastest growing jobs in the health care industry. The list is based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is a forecast of which health care careers will see the most growth in the next eight years. 

These aren’t small numbers we’re dealing with here. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that from 2008-2018, approximately 26 percent of all new jobs created in the U.S. economy will be in the health care and social assistance industry. It’s expected that upwards of four million jobs will be created in this time, the next closest service-oriented industry being professional, scientific and technical services with an expected 2.7 million jobs. 

Topping off the list of fastest growing jobs in health care are physician assistants with a predicted 41.3 percent increase from 2008-2018. Other top careers include medical secretaries, physicians/surgeons, registered nurses and counselors. 

Overall, health care careers have continued to yield a number of benefits. In addition to being well-paying jobs, hospitals and clinics are great environments in which to grow a career and seek leadership roles. The need for these positions is prevalent across Iowa, which gives many young people and families the option to choose where they want to live and work. From their community’s perspective, individuals in health care careers are especially beneficial to helping sustain the local economy. 

Click the link below to read the full article courtesy of MSN: 

Fastest Growing Jobs in Health Care

Hospitals and staff are encouraged to share more about their work and contributions to provide relief in Haiti.  

Ken Johnson, a former IHA senior vice president, collected the following information from Iowa hospitals to share with his colleagues at the Iowa chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

Health care personnel throughout Iowa were devastated by the news of the earthquake in Haiti and the destruction it caused.  The loss of life was staggering, thousands still remain unaccounted for and hundreds of thousands are still in desperate need of medical care, food and water.  As has often been the case in meeting natural disasters, Iowa hospitals, both large and small, responded quickly and effectively in providing greatly needed medical supplies, money and manpower to the victims of the Haiti earthquake.   

A group of emergency medicine physicians from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) are determined to help rebuild a better Haiti, including a new 50-bed hospital in the city of Leogane, just outside Port-au-Prince.  “If we didn’t make things better than they were then we’ve missed a tremendous opportunity,” said Dr. Christopher Buresh, an emergency medicine physician at UIHC. 

When the earthquake hit Haiti on January 12, Monica Keleher knew she wanted to help.  Keleher joined a group led by Dr. Buresh during a trip to Haiti in late March.  Fourteen people are a part of the group.  Keleher is a nurse with a background in nephrology and neonatal care at UIHC.   

Dallas County Hospital in Perry and Kossuth Regional Health Center in Algona both held “jeans days,” where their staffs gave donations in exchange for the privilege of wearing jeans to work.   In addition to the money raised by Dallas County employees, the hospital donated outdated or unused medical equipment to provide medical support to the relief effort.  The money generated by Kossuth County employees was sent to an orphanage in Port-au-Prince that is run by a missionary from Algona. 

Jefferson County Health Center in Fairfield was contacted by a local veterinarian about the possibility of providing medical supplies for his daughter’s mission trip to Haiti.  In one day, the staff quickly packaged and labeled eight large cartons, totaling an estimated $5,000 of critical medical supplies. 

Amy Zoutte, a Knoxville Hospital and Clinics employee has been in Haiti doing what she can to help Haitians see.   She and her husband Alan traveled to Pignon, a town about 80 miles north of Port-au-Prince, to spend a total of 10 days working in an eye clinic.   That was their sixth trip to Haiti. 

Employees and supporters from Clarke County Hospital in Osceola held a number of fund raisers, including selling Valentine cookies to raise more than $500, which was then matched by the local Lion’s Club.   

Waverly Health Center encouraged staff members to donate earned vacation time to the International Response Fund for Haiti through the American Red Cross.  Eleven employees donated a total of $1,667. 

Hancock County Memorial Hospital employees in Britt and Garner conducted a fund drive immediately after the earthquake and raised nearly $500 for the American Red Cross. 

Mercy Medical Center in Clinton donated $5,000 in sutures and their employees donated $2,500 in cash. 

Marengo Memorial Hospital collected medical supplies and employee cash donations to send with one of its physicians, a native of Haiti, who went there on a medical mission trip.   

In Clarion, Wright Medical Center contributed medical supplies while a family practice physician, physician assistant and respiratory therapist all signed up to go on mercy missions. 

In Primghar, Baum Harmon Memorial Hospital conducted a health kit collection drive, where employees could give money for a certain number of mini health kits with a value of $2.50 each.  One of their nurses also went on a mission trip to Haiti.  

In Fort Dodge, the employees and medical staff of Trinity Regional Medical Center came together as a system to collect medical supplies, surgical scrubs and bottled water to help in Haiti.  These supplies, valued at $30,000, were delivered to Project C.U.R.E.  (Commission on Urgent Relief and Equipment) to its depot in Denver.  From there, the supplies were shipped to Haiti.  

Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, along with its fellow hospitals of Catholic Health Initiatives, and their employees made contributions to two Catholic organizations that have relief efforts near the capitol city of Port-au-Prince.  Mercy also organized volunteers to assist Meals from the Heartland, an organization which packages food for use overseas.  In addition to these relief efforts, Mercy sent Emergency Management Coordinator Brenda McGraw, RN, to Haiti to help provide direct assistance to those in dire need.  As a member of Iowa Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT), McGraw and two other DMAT members from eastern Iowa were called to duty by the federal government for a two-week assignment in January. 

Iowa Health System’s (IHS) Consolidated Services oversees the ongoing program that redistributes surplus medical supplies from affiliate hospitals to countries in need.  In response to the crisis in Haiti, the hospital was able to compile a shipment of supplies valued at $30,000.  The shipment included four pallets of medical supplies, a pallet of surgical scrubs and two pallets of bottled water.  Damir Mujic from Iowa Methodist ‘s surgery department and a group of surgeons from Des Moines Orthopaedic Surgeons  traveled to Haiti to treat victims in need of medical and surgical care.  A number of the practice’s orthopaedic vendors donated supplies to accompany the group on their mission.

Two nurses from Alegent Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs spent a week in the Dominican Repub­lic treating victims of the Haiti earthquake.  Becky West and Michae­la Martin, both critical care nurses, returned in early February after the joint operation by Alegent Health and Creighton Univer­sity Medical Center.   

What they saw amazed them.  “They have nothing.  They have the clothes on their back, and that’s it,” West said.  “They were thankful to be alive, they were thankful to be in a hospi­tal, they were grateful to have people caring for them.  What I really hope is that people don’t forget,” she said.  “They’re going to need help in a year, in two years, in 10 years.  If I can go back and help, I will.”

The state scorecard released this week by the Commonwealth Fund (CF) ranks Iowa second in the country across key dimensions of health system performance.  Vermont was the highest ranking state, followed by Iowa and Hawaii, which tied for second.  Six of the 13 top-ranked states are located in the Upper Midwest.

 The new report, “Aiming Higher: Results from the 2009 State Scorecard on Health System Performance,” is a follow-up to CF’s 2007 state scorecard report; it ranks states on 38 indicators in the areas of access, quality, avoidable hospital use and costs, healthy lives and equity.  Iowa fell within the top quartile of states for 21 of the 38 measures.  Compared with 2007 results, Iowa improved 5 percent or more in 14 measures, worsened in seven measures and remained unchanged in 14 measures.

Poorly coordinated care and inefficient use of resources continue to undermine care and drive up costs in many state health care systems, according to the report.  States with higher medical costs tend to have higher rates of readmissions to the hospital and potentially preventable hospital admissions for chronic conditions like asthma and diabetes.

The report finds that Iowa and other Upper Midwestern states are all providing high quality care at lower cost.  “Their examples suggest that better coordinated care and more efficient use of resources could improve the quality of care people receive while keeping cost in check,” a CF statement concluded.

The scorecard points to substantial opportunities to improve.  If all states could reach the level achieved by the top-performing states like Iowa:

•  Nearly 78,000 fewer adults and children would die prematurely every year from conditions that could have been prevented with timely and effective health care.
•  Nine million more adults age 50 and older would receive recommended preventive care, and almost 800,000 more children would receive key vaccinations.
• Five billion dollars could be saved annually by avoiding preventable hospital admissions and readmissions for vulnerable elderly and disabled residents.
•  Twenty-nine million more people would have health insurance, cutting the number of uninsured by more than half.

“The differences we see among the states translate to real lives and dollars,” said CF President Karen Davis. “If we can enact health reforms that give all states the opportunity to do as well as the best states we will save lives, improve quality and cut costs.  And, the good news is that these aren’t pie-in-the-sky goals – we know they are attainable because we see it happening in the states at the top of the pack.”

The authors concluded that federal action is needed to raise the floor on performance levels across all states and create a supportive climate for state innovation.  If the health care system continues on its current course of rising costs and declining health insurance coverage, states will have an increasingly difficult time going it alone on providing access to affordable, quality health care.