Pacific Gateway, a regional workforce development agency in Long Beach, Calif., was awarded $2,816,000 from the U.S. Department of Labor to upgrade skills, certifications and training needs in the healthcare sector on Tuesday.
The project was developed through a public-private partnership with Long Beach Memorial, Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach and Community Hospital Long Beach, which are part of the MemorialCare Health System.
According to Susan Crockett, director of clinical workforce development at Long Beach Memorial and Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach, the grant was funded through the U.S. Department of Labor to address the U.S. H-1B Visa program, which will provide customized technical training to unemployed America job seekers in occupations and industries that have seen shortages of skilled workers.
The grant will create 363 new positions within Long Beach Memorial, Miller Children’s, Community Hospital Long Beach, the MemorialCare Health System and other healthcare sites. An additional 400 MemorialCare employees will receive updated training and certifications to help them advance in their career pathways.
“People who do not have the funds in order to get technical training and updated certifications will be able to do this now at basically no cost to them,” said Crockett. “We’re also planning for our future at our facilities. With upcoming retirements, there’s a lack of trained people to fill many technical positions that many people often don’t think about, such as surgical sterilization technicians and phlebotomists.”
Employment opportunities include patient care assistants, surgical sterilization technicians, clinical lab scientists, phlebotomists and other positions. Many of the jobs created during the four-year grant period will be new occupations, developed in response to upcoming changes in healthcare law.
“We look forward to our continued success together. This partnership has contributed not only to the services we can provide but also to keeping up employment in our community, “ said Diana Hendel, chief executive officer at Long Beach Memorial, Miller Children’s and Community Hospital Long Beach, in a written statement.
Joint investment from MemorialCare will help Long Beach City College and Los Angeles Harbor College develop new patient care and medical billing training designed to both maintain Long Beach Memorial’s, Miller Children’s and Community Hospital Long Beach’s award-winning level of care and bring about operational efficiencies. These innovative practices will be studied for possible replication at other hospitals.
Crockett said participants in the program also will have access to personalized academic counseling to help them continue their community college education to earn additional certifications or work toward degrees in healthcare. The first cohort of 10 participants began on Nov. 7, 2011. The project builds upon a longtime collaboration between Pacific Gateway, the region’s workforce development agency, and Long Beach Memorial, Miller Children’s, Community Hospital Long Beach and the MemorialCare Health System as a whole.
“This will be incredibly transformational for our customers,” said Larry Rice, a board member representing the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Board, in a written statement. “These are good jobs with an employer that has made a significant investment in their futures and in the future of the region.”
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