Does Your Future Point to a career Working in Healthcare?

Are you interested in a career working in healthcare?

Bay Area Medical Academy recently attended The Future Of Healthcare panel discussion hosted by the San Francisco Business Times at The Fairmont, San Francisco.

Panelists were: David Entwistle, President and CEO, Stanford Health Care; Tom X. Lee, CEO and Founder, One Medical; Sarah Krevans, President and CEO, Sutter Health; Cal Knight, President and CEO, John Muir Health; David Joyner, CEO, Hill Physicians Medical Group; and Janet A. Liang, President, Northern California, Kasier Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan, Inc.

During the discussion, panelists addressed topics and issues such as health reform, new technologies and innovations, providing affordable and quality patient care, and healthcare expansion within the San Francisco Bay Area.

The mood of the discussion ranged from uncertainty for what lies ahead concerning changes to the Affordable Care Act to optimism about technological advancements and contemporary medical facility developments improving the patient care experience.

Healthcare industry efforts to improve the patient care experience within the Bay Area can be seen in the building of the Sutter Health/CPMC hospital at Van Ness and Geary in San Francisco, which is predicted be completed in 2018.

Among the new hospital’s highlights are the 50-plus medical specialties that will be represented across its 11 floors, the 274 licensed patient beds, and that the hospital is a new breed of smart, safe and green buildings, providing, for instance, patients, guests, and staff with 100% fresh, outdoor air.

With this new hospital, and other healthcare provider new construction rising up around the Bay Area, it’s again worth noting the increased demand for well-trained healthcare professionals to work at these state-of-the-art medical facilities.

For instance, the Senate California Legislature in A Review of California’s Health Care Workforce Shortages and Strategies to Address These Shortages reported projected employment growth rate changes between 2008 and 2018 for these popular healthcare worker positions:

• Medical Assistant – 30.6% employment growth
• Home Health Aides – 43.6% employment growth
• Pharmacy Technician – 28.4 % employment growth

Although the future of healthcare is complex and a destination that’s hard to pin down, one aspect of that future certainly appears to be more certain than others – jobs being generated within the industry are on the continued rise.

If this is a career path that interests you, taking your first steps along the way can be scary.

However, there’s confidence to gained in the fact that many adult learners are leaving their current jobs and unemployment behind and starting to make the successful transition to working in healthcare.

People are beginning to see the employment opportunity that the healthcare industry is providing them.

Does your future point towards a career working in healthcare?