ICYMI: Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi Continues His Work to Strengthen Illinois’ Health Care Workforce at Roundtable in Peoria
PEORIA, IL – On Tuesday, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi joined OSF HealthCare leadership, regional career and technical education leaders, and representatives from organized labor for a facility tour and roundtable discussion at the Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center, located on the campus of OSF Saint Francis Medical Center. A collaboration between the University of Illinois College of Medicine and OSF HealthCare, Jump Simulation is a leader in innovation and the preparation of Illinois’ healthcare workforce. During the roundtable, Congressman Krishnamoorthi and other participants discussed the state of Illinois’ healthcare workforce, how federal dollars can most effectively be leveraged to increase the utility of career and technical programs throughout the state, and the path forward to ensure a robust talent pipeline from our Illinois schools to critical sectors like healthcare.
The discussion in Peoria is a continuation of a wider series of roundtables started by Congressman Krishnamoorthi, who has held similar discussions at several other post-secondary institutions across Illinois focused on the need to further invest in career and technical education (CTE) programs. Congressman Krishnamoorthi has long advocated for greater CTE funding during his time in Congress and authored the bipartisan Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act that increased federal funding to CTE programs by $1.3 billion annually. Congressman Krishnamoorthi is currently preparing provisions for legislation to reauthorize and expand the workforce development programs his law supports.
“The strength of our health care system depends on the skill of our medical workforce. I was grateful for the opportunity to meet with leaders from OSF HealthCare and the Peoria Community, including Mayor Ali, to discuss the investments we need to make in our education and workforce development programs to prepare today’s students for the health care careers of tomorrow.”
Congressman Krishnamoorthi’s roundtable discussion at OSF HealthCare in Peoria was featured on segments in WYZZ and WMBD. The event was also covered in Central Illinois Proud, WCBU, and 25 News Now.
Missed it? See below for a rundown:
WHAT THEY’RE WATCHING:
“Krishnamoorthi is trying to advocate for Illinois’ health care workforce” - WYZZ
WHAT THEY’RE READING:
OSF leaders meet with lawmakers to strengthen workforce: Central Illinois Proud
- PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — Improving the healthcare workforce to save lives.
- Leaders of OSF HealthCare, Peoria Mayor Rita Ali, central Illinois career and technical education leaders along with representatives from organized labor talked about the need for healthcare workers, or as OSF refers to their employees as “mission partners”, how federal dollars can be used for career and technical programs in Illinois and how to keep Illinois medical students in the state.
- “There’s a huge health care job shortage right now,” said Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who represents Illinois’s 8th district which encompasses Chicago suburbs like Elgin, Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg. “Just not enough people to take the vacancies that exist in health care throughout the country, including here in Peoria.”
- Krishnamoorthi, along with Pennsylvania Republican, G.T. Thompson, authored the bi-partisan Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2018.
- Now, he is going to places in Illinois to see what can be done to employ more healthcare workers in the state.
- “What I’ve been doing is going and visiting different places like OSF and other employers to figure out, ‘Okay, what do we need to do in the reauthorization of this law to make it better, provide more resources and make it even more valuable for both students and employers?'” he said.
Congressman seeks ‘flexibility’ in federal funding for Illinois’ health care industry needs: WCBU
An Illinois legislator is traveling the state, looking for solutions to a nationwide shortage of health care workers.
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi is the U.S. representative for Illinois’ 8th District. While Krishnamoorthi’s district covers a swath of Chicago suburbs, the Democrat is a graduate of Peoria’s Richwoods High School.
He visited OSF Saint Francis Medical Center on Tuesday to hear about its programs for attracting and retaining medical professionals, as well as what organizations like OSF still need. Krishnamoorthi says education, childcare and transportation are the most frequent needs.
“We need students to be able to get from where they are, whether it’s at school or home, to the place where they can learn the skills at issue, and then into a job,” he said. “And so what we’re finding is that we need more flexibility in the dollars that are being provided from the federal government to be able to use for these other purposes.”
Krishnamoorthi is one of the architects of the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century (Perkins V) Act that was signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2018. This was the fifth reauthorization of the Perkins Act that provides more than $1 billion in federal funding for workforce development programs.
“How do we get more students into these programs, into the pipeline for the healthcare industry? Because, right now, there’s such a shortage that if we don’t address it patients are going to be affected,” said Krishnamoorthi. “Our seniors are going to be affected, and we don’t want that to happen.”
Krishnamoorthi spoke with a roundtable of OSF and community leaders about other programs attempting to fill the gaps in health care jobs. Those included work-based learning CNA programs at Illinois Central College, a pharmacy tech program, opportunities for retirees to work and flexible roles that allow for health care workers to function in a capacity similar to “gig” employees.
As Krishnamoorthi returns to Washington and the discussion of the next reauthorization, he plans to request more flexibility in how fund recipients can utilize their federal dollars to meet the needs of the modern health care workforce.
“The No. 1 job of educators, certainly for post-secondary education, is to make sure that everyone gets into what I call the greatest social welfare program devised by human beings, which is a J-O-B,” he said. “We need to get everyone into a job and a middle-class sustaining career.”