After nearly a decade as CFO of Dayton (Ohio) Children's Hospital, Chris Bergman has seen firsthand the challenges of pediatric healthcare. As we enter 2025, Mr. Bergman told Becker's that one issue stands above the rest: workforce.
"The supply and demand doesn't match up right now," Mr. Bergman said.
Mr. Bergman said the clinical workforce constitutes 25% of Dayton Children's employees, with the other 75% consisting of traditional jobs like food service or housekeeping, which is a competitive recruitment field.
"We compete against UPS, FedEx and Amazon, where we never used to have to compete against [them]," he said. "How do we make sure our labor, our wages, are at a point where they're competitive?"
Mr. Bergman said the healthcare industry has also created some of its own workforce demand by opening new care sites. For example, when a new imaging center or emergency room is opened up, it needs to be properly staffed.
To help with recruitment, Dayton Children's is working with area schools to develop the right programs to create a clinical workforce pipeline.
In an effort to streamline retention, Mr. Bergman said Dayton Children's conducts research to ensure its wages are competitive. The standalone hospital has also worked to adjust to work ethic changes seen over the years, with employees today putting more importance on work-life balance and fixed shifts.
Dayton Children's plans to use technology to improve well-being and make it easier for healthcare employees to avoid spending multiple hours on tedious tasks, ensuring they get more face time with their patients.
"[I]t's [technology] so expensive and there's a lot of great possibilities out there, but you need to be careful which one you pick and choose," Mr. Bergman said. "You don't want to be late to the game, but you don't want to be too early, and you've got to watch what you spend."