A recent report from the Missouri Hospital Association shows trends in turnover and vacancy rates among certain health care professions, specifically with challenges regarding nurse staffing.
MHA surveyed 151 of its hospital members, 135 from Missouri, and found 27 with an employee vacancy of more than five percent of the 36 occupations surveyed. Nurse practitioners landed in that category as well as information technology project managers, radiology technology assistants, certified surgical technicians and sonographers/ultrasound technologists.
"This year is unique in the fact that the data shows more volatility as far as looking at 36 different professions surveyed," said Meredith Carroll, MHA director of workforce initiatives and special projects. "Specifically, it's hard to tell or pinpoint what caused the volatility. Instead of one single factor, it looks like it could potentially be a multitude of factors occurring at the same time."
Several of those factors come down to age, the report shows. The need for skilled health professionals, primarily nurses, will increase as the Baby Boomer generation ages and need more health attention.
According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, seniors are projected to be about a quarter of the state's population by 2030. Among Missouri adults, about three-quarters are dealing with a chronic disease and more than half have at least two. Better health care access, the report states, is causing more people to have insurance and live longer.
"What I have heard as far as my research and studying the health care workforce, some might call it a perfect storm, others call it a silver tsunami, but all this happening at the same time definitely increases the demand for the health care workforce," Carroll said. "So, of course that is great news as far as those who are seeking employment and those returning to the workforce. But, it does present a challenge for hospitals, specifically when they invest quite a bit in the workforce as far as recruiting and retaining employees."
The large portion of nurses in the state are about the same age as their Baby Boomer patients. The report states about 44 percent of advanced practice registered nurses are ages 50 or older, and half plan to retire in 10 years. During the recession, older nurses put off retiring or switching from full-time to part-time. As the economy bounces back, they are starting to retire, the report states.
Missouri's nurse staff employee turnover rate is at 15.7 percent. Of the 10 regions in the report, central Missouri had the highest nurse staff employee turnover rate at 20.4 percent.
"Turnover can be very costly for a hospital, especially when they invest so much, not only in recruiting but also in training," Carroll said. "If your turnover is significantly higher than the region or state, there's significant areas for improvement."
The region also ranked second in the report for nurse staff employee vacancy at 11.7 percent. The St. Louis region was the highest in that category at 12.2 percent. As a state, the percentage came in at 9.9 percent.
"If we have high extremely high vacancies and high turnover, that's really problematic because that means you're seeing them move, but you're also not finding enough of them," said MHA spokesman Dave Dillon.
Dillon said the report does not identify the causes for turnover rates in individual regions, but rather provides hospitals with information to identify any troubling trends and they can determine where to make investments. He said some hospitals have found success in working with colleges and universities to provide schooling at a discounted cost.
All employee turnover by workforce investment area
Missouri total: 16.3 percent
Northwest: 13.9 percent
Northeast: 18 percent
West Central: 18.4 percent
Central: 18.9 percent
Southwest: 15.1 percent
Ozark: 18.9 percent
South Central: 16 percent
Southeast: 20.6 percent
St. Louis: 14.1 percent
Kansas City: 15.8 percent
Source: Missouri Hospital Association's 2015 Workforce Report