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Open Letter to the Metropolitan Chicago Congressional Delegation
and the Illinois General Assembly

Imagine a world where residents in the metropolitan Chicago region cannot get health care where they need it, when they need it. A world where hospitals and doctors are forced to drastically reduce or eliminate medical procedures, reduce hours of operation or, worse, close down entirely. Imagine waiting for hours in a hospital emergency room simply because there is no technician available to run a test . Sound impossible? Well, it’s not. Unfortunately, such a world is right around the corner. The metropolitan Chicago area continues to experience a severe shortage of registered nurses, pharmacists, technicians, allied health professionals and other skilled-caregivers, a situation that has reached a crisis stage that will only worsen unless we act – NOW.

The demand for hospital-based and other health care services throughout the metropolitan Chicago region is increasing rapidly as our population continues to grow and age and new ways to deliver care are developed. More than 22,500 additional health professionals will be needed to meet the region’s health care needs by 2020. Of this total, more than 13,000 will be nurses. Today, however, vacancy rates for nurses, pharmacists and many other professions throughout the metropolitan Chicago region exceed 10 percent. In the region’s hospitals alone, more than 2,500 open positions for registered nurses exist simply because there are not enough nurses available. Ultimately, it is likely to be patient access to timely and appropriate health care that will be compromised as a result of our region’s health care workforce crisis.

Recent efforts by the General Assembly and Governor Blagojevich to fund the state’s critical skills shortage initiative and remove some of the barriers for foreign-trained nurses and advance practice nurses to practice in Illinois are a step in the right direction. More needs to be done. We now call on policymakers in Washington and Springfield to take additional action.

As detailed by the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council’s report entitled Caring for the Future: A Plan for Meeting the Metropolitan Chicago’s Growing Health Care Workforce Needs, an investment of as much as $50 million over five years is needed to increase the metropolitan Chicago region’s health care workforce by at least 50 percent. By 2010, Illinois will need 6,000 new nurses and 1,200 new allied health professionals each year to meet patient demands.With such an investment, we can increase the recruitment of tomorrow’s health professionals by building and expanding capacity in health professions training and education programs and attracting young people and career changers to pursue a rewarding career in health care.

Solving the health care workforce shortage will require not only a collaborative effort, but a significant investment of funding, people and time. However, the cost of doing little – or nothing – is one that the metropolitan Chicago region cannot afford. We the undersigned are committed to caring for the future health care needs of our communities. We urge our leaders in Springfield and Washington to act today if the region is to retain its competitive position in health care and provide the necessary health care services our communities expect and demand.

Sincerely,

To voice your support and sign on to this letter, please contact Dennis O’Sullivan, Project Director, MCHC Government Relations, with the following information:

• Your name
• Organization/Affiliation
• Address
• Telephone Number
• Fax Number
• E-mail

For more information, please contact Dennis O'Sullivan at 312-906-6080.

Posted September 19, 2005