Posted on 11/04/2021 1:26:31 AM PDT by Mount Athos
As Montana struggles to attract and retain health care workers, Gov. Greg Gianforte announced Tuesday a health care workforce recruitment program that would cover relocation costs for providers who commit to moving to the state.
The incentive would pay up to $12,500 in relocation expenses plus 35% to cover taxes. To qualify, health care workers must commit to permanently relocating to Montana and be employed at a health care facility for at least 12 consecutive months.
The program is expected to launch by the end of November, Gianforte said.
Prior to the press conference at Billings Clinic, Gianforte toured the hospital's intensive care unit where the 47 patients being treated put the ICU at 160% of capacity.
"It's just heart breaking to see...once you're in the ICU, unfortunately there aren't many victories. This is the tragic consequence of this virus," Gianforte said as he thanked health care workers across the state for their heroic actions throughout the pandemic.
Gianforte staunchly held his position against mandating vaccinations in Montana, but added that vaccines prevent severe COVID illness.
"While we're not going to mandate vaccinations, I want to say that hearing from (Billings Clinic ICU staff), you don't see vaccinated people in the ICU. Eighty-five percent of people, approximately, since April that have ended up in the hospital have been unvaccinated," Gianforte said.
As sky rocketing hospitalizations due to COVID-19 contribute to burn out among nurses, Gianforte said the best way to relieve and retain existing staff is to bring in more workers.
Billings Clinic has brought in more than 1,000 traveling healthcare workers during the last 18 months and turnover of exiting staff has been increasing, according to Interim Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michelle Pierson.
“A retention strategy as well as a recruitment strategy will be very important moving forward,” Pierson said.
The funds for the recruitment incentive are left over from the return-to-work bonus program that offered one-time bonuses for Montanans who returned to the workforce, according to previous reporting done by Montana State News Bureau reporter Sam Wilson.
The return-to-work program was launched in May 2021 and ended Oct. 31.
Lawmakers and administration officials voted unanimously on Oct. 27, 2021 to recommend the $4.3 million the state received through the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) be put toward the new program.
“For too long, Montana has struggled to recruit and retain health care workers. This shortage has been felt in our largest communities but also in our frontier and rural communities especially where access to doctors and specialists has long posed a challenge, even before the pandemic. Over the last 19 months however recruiting and retaining health care workers has become an even greater challenge," Gianforte said. “With this innovative new program, we’re inviting qualified doctors, nurses, and other health care providers to move to Montana, serve in our communities, alleviate some of the burden on existing workers, and help us build capacity so Montanans have greater access to care.”
The governor added that he encourages all Montanans to talk to their doctor about getting vaccinated.
"I did that. I got vaccinated. And I would encourage others to do it as well," Gianforte said.
St. Vincent Healthcare Chief Operation Officer, Krikor Jansezian provided the following statement after the press conference:
“We appreciate and applaud the focus Gov. Gianforte is placing on the acute-care workforce shortage that healthcare facilities throughout Montana are currently experiencing. The initiatives announced today are certainly a step in the right direction and will bring additional resources to our state that we hope will help ease the current labor shortage challenges.”
I STILL HAVE MY LICENSE!
>>I think I also remember hearing Florida was willing to pay fired Police to relocate there
Pretty sure they don’t need to do that - when police get fired for misconduct or corruption in the other 49 states, they move to Florida anyway.
The Florida chatter was if you were let go because of non-vax reasons...not regular ‘fired’ status for bad-behavior. To be honest though....no one in Florida has said they have a shortage of police (at least not yet).
I wonder if that includes pharmacist. I could get my wife to take the test out there
Not sure I’d want to move to a state with a governor peddling BS CoupFlu stats...
This shortage has been felt in our largest communities
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Montana’s most populated city is Billings. pop. 110,000.
In unrelated news Joe Biden offers $450,000 for illegals to move to the United States...
IT workers were getting $12,000 bonuses 25 years ago before H-1B screwed us all.....
Who in their right mind would take the offer from someone who does not recognize the science of natural immunity? Ignoring this gift from God in favor of ‘un-vaccinated’ only leads to a desperate situation seen in every patient you might treat.
Unless the hospitals offer to ditch the CDC ‘CoVID Death Protocol’ and apply early treatment when tested positive for CoVID, Montana health care has nothing of value to offer potential job applicants.
Yup—the governor sounds like he is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer—wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.
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