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The health care industry and its workforce have been transformed professionally and personally due to the historic pandemic, its length and uncertainties, fear for themselves and their families, politics, short- and long-range impacts.

“As of 2019, Greater Philadelphia’s healthcare workforce accounted for roughly 365,670 jobs or 12.7 percent of the total regional workforce – one of the highest concentrations among major U.S. metropolitan regions.” Economy League Philadelphia

Health Care Connect (HCC) is an industry partnership managed by the Chester County Economic Development Council (CCEDC). HCC’s mission is to support regional health care workers through collaboration and best practices. In order to maintain the current workforce with opportunities for advancement and bring new workers into health care, a new set of tools and attitudes is required to focus on worker’s self-care in order to manage behavioral health challenges from PTSD to depression.

Societal ills that demand a focus on career pathways to entry and advancement for disenfranchised and incumbent workers is equally important.

Those mandates in the context of all that is advancing in terms of patient access actually due to the pandemic and constantly evolving technology, translates into radical consequences for traditional provider staffing, training and acceptable patient care ratios and levels of care.

Currently, multiple agencies and other providers are collaborating with resources and transitional guidance—including HCC to assist peers at Tower Health.

With HCC members so busy due to workloads and worker shortages, HCC combined the Behavioral Health and Training Action Teams to minimize duplication of meetings and agendas. The new team:
HCC’s Training & Advocacy Action Team has quite a bit of exciting collaborations ahead!

Aligning all these factors and assessing how to support health care workers may be a daunting task,
but HCC partners represent world class medical providers at the forefront of their industry supported by innovation that has Philadelphia defined as a vibrant “tech hub.”

Come join us, make new friends while making a difference!

Onward HCC!

Flo Byarms, former Manager of Community Health and Equity, Paoli Hospital/Main Line Health, provided this quick and valuable fact sheet – COVID Vaccine Know the Facts. For this printable page and other COVID information and education resources, visit our COVID-19 Resources page.