Running list: Top healthcare workforce news, trends of 2015

With more than 15 million people working in healthcare in the United States, the there are more than a few ins and outs when it comes to hiring and managing a healthcare provider's employees from the support staff all the way up to the executive offices. Follow this running list of top stories and trends affecting the workforce.

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Intermountain Healthcare Chief Executive Officer Charles W. Sorenson will retire in October 2016, the Utah-based system announced on Monday, after spending 17 years as an executive for the celebrated healthcare provider. Full story.

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A new survey from online jobs search site HealthITJobs.com shows that health IT workers are in high demand, with many executives earning top dollar for their experience. Full story.

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Healthcare added a modest 24,000 jobs in November, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics said, as hiring slowed following the massive job gains the sector saw in October. Full story.

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Despite doctors being among the most highly paid professionals in the workforce, a new study by Fidelity Investments shows their retirement plans may not be the picture of perfect health. Full story.

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More hospitals are banking that improved communications will reduce waste and cut down on costs, according to a recent study by Spok. Full story.

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A sizable number of hospitals have posted job openings for chief financial officers on LinkedIn, indicating the field is wide open for those wishing to take the reigns of a healthcare organization's finances. Here are 10 of them, spanning the country from Florida to Washington state. Full story.

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Averting a planned strike, Kaiser Permanente and the National Union of Healthcare Workers reached a tentative agreement for a 6 percent wage increase during the first year of a three-year contract for mental health employees working in Northern California. Full story.

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Ask Bryan Chalmers to name the top trends that he will be watching in 2015 and he has no shortage of ideas. As chief financial officer at Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie, Wyoming, Chalmers said there are no less than eight critical topics that are vying for his attention. Full story.

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Chief compliance officers working for a larger organization earn more than their peers at smaller healthcare providers, according to a survey of CCOs and their staffs released this week by the Health Care Compliance Association. Full story.

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Healthcare businesses added 45,000 jobs in October, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported as the sector continues to lead as a job-creating sector of the American economy. Full story.

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Healthcare chief executive and chief financial officers saw among the largest pay increases between 2013 and 2014 compared to other business sectors, a new report by accounting firm BDO USA found. Though the pay gap between these top healthcare execs is wider than others. Full story.

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A recent Black Book Market Research survey revealed hospitals are finding their C-suite is unprepared for the drastic technological innovations in healthcare and are seeking solutions. In fact, for the first time in 15 years, healthcare industry experience dropped from the top 10 desired skills of recruited executives. Full story.

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As healthcare mergers continue to pick up pace due to industry conditions that favor large-scale systems, it can be a difficult transition when organizations with different work cultures are forced to combine. Full story.

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After a number of delays, and much anticipation, the implementation of ICD-10 is finally underway as of Oct. 1. But with all the competition in the job market this year for skilled coding professionals, some hospitals and healthcare organizations may have yet to start the journey. Full story.

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Base salaries for healthcare executives climbed a modest 3.1 percent in 2015, a new survey from Sullivan, Cotter and Associates found, as the expanded responsibilities C-level execs face in healthcare is causing compensation packages to swell. Full story.

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Healthcare organizations added 34,000 jobs in September, representing a small drop compared to the 41,000 jobs added in August, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Full story.

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When NorthShore University Health System did an analysis of needed staffing levels, they found, to their surprise, that Tuesdays were as busy as Mondays, said Dr. Daniel Chertok, senior data scientist for the Chicago-area health system. Full story.

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Academic medicine is still a man's world, according to two studies and an accompanying editorial published in September in the journal JAMA. Full story.

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Healthcare businesses added 41,000 jobs in August, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics announced, a huge jump compared to the previous month as hospitals, ambulatory centers and physicians offices hired thousands in the last full month of the summer. The sector added 28,000 jobs in July. Overall, the U.S. economy added 173,000 jobs in August, while the overall unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent, a seven-year low. Full story.

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Home health workers employed by an agency are subject to the same minimum wage and overtime pay standards as those who perform similar services in a hospital, nursing home or other setting, according to an August 21 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals. Three home health organizations argued that federal law exempts employees who work in the home from the minimum wage and overtime pay regulations. Full story.

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Mark Bogen puts in long hours watching over the finances at South Nassau Communities Hospital on Long Island, New York. In return, he draws a generous paycheck and employee benefits. His counterpart, Treasurer Bob Whyte, also puts in many hours safeguarding the finances at South Nassau Communities Hospital. But Bob earns nothing for his efforts. Full story.

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With revenue cycle staff in big demand, healthcare providers are scrambling to find candidates with this specialized type of experience before initiatives like ICD-10 and value-based payments put too much pressure on cash flow. "Absolutely there is a shortage," said Ann Trotter, a healthcare finance recruiter with Kaye/Bassman International Corp. "It doesn't look like ICD-10 will be delayed, so it is putting hospitals in hyperdrive because they know their dollars are going to plummet." Full story.

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Management matters in producing higher quality clinical care, a new Health Affairs study claims. The study, published in the journal's August issue, found that hospital boards that paid greater attention to clinical quality had a direct effect on management doing a better job of monitoring performance, target setting and operations. Full story.

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The U.S. healthcare industry added 28,000 jobs in July, a drop from 40,000 jobs added in June, as hiring in the sector continued through the summer months. The news came as the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics said the country added 215,000 jobs in total. The July unemployment rate also held flat at 5.3 percent. Full story.

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Financial pressures are causing a growing number of U.S. doctors to leave private practice for hospital employment, according to a new report by Accenture. Only one-in-three physicians will remain independent by the end of 2016, Accenture predicts. Full story.

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As patients, consumers, governments and the media are all following the money in healthcare, more scrutiny than ever is falling on executive compensation in the industry. In 2009, as layoffs continued at unemployment hit a 25 year record of 10 percent, the top executives at nonprofit hospitals earned an average of $600,000, with CEOs in the highest 10 percent getting an average of $1.66 million, according to a study by Harvard researchers. The JAMA Internal Medicine study found that the more the beds overseen, the higher the salary was, but otherwise there wasn't any correlation between CEO compensation and mortality rates, readmission rates or financial margins. Full story.

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The digital transformation in healthcare is having a big effect on hospital marketing departments. Large or small, for-profit or nonprofit, hospital marketing staffs are reinventing themselves with 'precision marketing'. Using social media, web technologies and data analytics, healthcare marketing professionals can engage current patients, future patients, and the broader community in ways like never before. Full story.

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Ask the typical hospital CFO who their most important number two is, and odds are they will say the controller. But with all the changes around healthcare reimbursement models, some managers say the role of reimbursement manager is rapidly catching up. For many hospitals and healthcare centers, that means these three roles – the CFO, the controller, and the reimbursement manager – form the new 'trinity' of finance leadership. Full story.

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The good news is labor relations within the healthcare industry seem stable for the most part, though contentious issues such as patient safety still exist and have threatened to disrupt operations at some health centers in the United States. The most recent conflict, focused on patient safety, nearly caused a strike at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. Just days before a scheduled nurses' strike July 13 and 14, labor and management ratified a new contract, averting the walkout. The union had been asking for the health system to hire more nurses to alleviate a staffing shortage that members feared would jeopardize patient safety. As a result of the concerns presented at the bargaining table, the new agreement calls for the hiring of 30 additional registered nurses to cover shift gaps and deploy "resource nurses" to buttress safe staffing in the hospital's emergency department and medical-surgical patient floors. Full story.

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The healthcare industry added more than 40,000 jobs in June, a slight dip compared to the prior month, as the field continues to expand, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said in July. According to the report, healthcare businesses added 40,100 jobs compared to adding 48,000 in May. In total, healthcare employed 15.1 million people in the month. Full story.

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Christine White pays $300 a year more for her health care because she refused to join her former employer’s wellness program, which would have required that she fill out a health questionnaire and join activities like Weight Watchers. “If I didn’t have the money … I’d have to” participate, says White, 63, a retired groundskeeper from a Portland, Oregon community college. Full story.

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Nurse practitioners today make more than $100,000 a year, a new report by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners shows, with average annual income up 10 percent since 2011. More than 2,200 nurse practitioners responded to the AANP report. Full story.

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Federal regulators want to finally quell the healthcare industry’s epidemic of nurses getting hurt on the job by investigating, auditing and if necessary fining hospitals and residential care facilities for workplace safety problems, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration told its 10 regional divisions. OSHA is extending its National Emphasis Program on Nursing and Residential Care Facilities because the healthcare industry still has more reported workplace injuries than any other general industry, OSHA enforcement director Thomas Galassi wrote in a memo to state and regional staff. Full story.

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The Colorado Supreme Court has upheld the opt-out option requiring physician supervision for a certified registered nurse anesthetist who administers anesthesia, as it relates to hospitals and other medical service in the state seeking Medicare reimbursement, according to the ruling. The decision in Colorado Medical Society v. Hickenlooper was applauded by the Colorado Hospital Association, according to the American Hospital Association. Full story.

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Healthcare providers added 47,000 jobs in May, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday, slightly outpacing April as hiring in the sector continues to pick up speed. Overall, healthcare has added 408,000 jobs in the past year. Full story.

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