By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
CHEROKEE, N.C. – The Cherokee Indian Hospital Authority (CIHA) is currently short-staffed and is planning a Job Fair to address this issue. The event, which will feature on-the-spot interviews, will be held in the Welch Top Conference Room in the hospital on Monday, July 29 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
CIHA currently has 70 job openings with some of the most short-staffed areas being nursing, behavioral health, and operations including medical laboratory technicians and dentists.
Casey Cooper, CIHA chief executive officer, commented, “While we strive to maintain the highest standards of care, being short-staffed has inevitably led to some challenges. These include longer wait times for appointments, increased workload for existing staff, and occasional delays in non-urgent services. We are continuously working to mitigate these impacts by prioritizing the most acute care needs and streamlining our processes to improve efficiency. We hear our patients when they share their concerns regarding long waits for appointments and we want to do everything we can to improve the patient experience as well as protect the work/life balance of our existing staff to avoid future burnout.”
Some of the areas that will be featured as employment opportunities at the Job Fair include: Behavioral Health at Analenisgi, Long-Term Care at Tsali Care Center, Dietary, Maintenance, Housekeeping, Dental, Nursing, Medical, and Eye Clinic.
“This event is an excellent opportunity for individuals currently seeking employment, as well as high school and college students who are exploring career paths and wish to learn more about the various roles within our organization,” said Brittney Lofthouse, CIHA executive director of development and community relations. “We will have a list of current employment opportunities as well as be looking toward future positions.”
Tara Reed-Cooper, CIHA employment & recruitment manager, addressed some of the reasons for the current shortage. She said there is an increased demand for services. “The growing needs of our community have outpaced our staffing levels. Since we opened the doors of the new hospital facility in 2015 our patient population has increased. In addition to adding more patients, we have expanded the scope of services locally available to for our patients. In response to tribal priorities and with the support of tribal Leadership we have had significant growth in our Behavioral Health services and in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services we are providing a vast array of enhanced care management services for some many of our most vulnerable populations. The addition of these services has increased demand for more staff who have unique skills and training.”
She said there is also a limited workforce in the field. “There is a nationwide shortage of healthcare professionals, which impacts our ability to fill positions. The healthcare workforce took a serious hit after the COVID19 pandemic and since that time unemployment has consistently been at 4 percent and below. Compounding the problem is the nationwide decline in enrollment into higher education, especially among males. Therefore, the workforce pipeline is not meeting the workforce demands, especially in the health care sector.”
Reed-Cooper said the job market in the health care realm is highly competitive. “Higher wages and benefits offered by other healthcare facilities and industries make recruitment challenging. While we appreciate our medical partners at larger hospitals, the reality is we are in competition with them for a very limited workforce. Our high employee engagement scores and our low employee turnover rates demonstrate that Cherokee Indian Hospital is a great place to work, but we first have to get the employees in the door. Most of the health systems in our region are now owned by large for-profit corporations who have the ability to pay higher salaries and offer very enticing incentives and sign-on bonuses, resulting in increased competition and wage inflation.”
CIHA is looking at several strategies to recruit including competitive salaries. Reed-Cooper noted, “We are reviewing and adjusting our salary and benefits packages to ensure they are competitive within the industry. While it might not be possible to compete with the sign-on bonuses larger hospitals offer – there are advantages to being smaller and more personal. We have the advantage of working with individual employees on shift flexibility and schedules. We leverage the benefits package we are able to offer employees through the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, which provides arguably the best benefits package of any employer in western North Carolina. We are constantly evaluating the compensation we provide for staff – not just at a base level but when it comes to shift differentials, holiday pay, paid holidays, and other areas to ensure we remain on pace with industry standards.”
Another aspect is training and development programs. Reed-Cooper stated, ” We are investing in training programs to upskill our current employees and provide career advancement opportunities, making CIHA an attractive place to work. We have programs in place to cover the cost of the mandatory CEUs and certifications for our employees and allocate funding for trainings and conferences. The hospital foundation just finalized details with the N.C. Community Foundation for the Carmaleta Monteith Endowment Fund, which provides financial assistance to existing employees looking to advance their education.”
Engaging with the community is also very important Reed-Cooper says. “We are working with local educational institutions to create pipelines for future healthcare workers, including internships and residency programs.”
She added, “With the systematic problem that we are currently seeing across the country relating to the workforce shortage in healthcare – we really just need to get back to the basics, which means getting the next generation of employees excited about a profession in healthcare. CIHA CEO Casey Cooper began his healthcare career by happenstance. By chance, he took a health occupation class in high school and that class had a field trip to a nursing home where he experienced the impact that caring for others in need in a compassionate way can have and that changed the trajectory of his career to pursue nursing. That is what we have to do. That is why we prioritize working with high schools across the region for their CTE classes and health occupation courses.”
CIHA has another staffing challenge coming up. The new Tsali Care Center is slated to open in October.
Bethe Greene, CIHA human resources director, said, “The new Tsali Care Center, set to open in October, will significantly increase our capacity for residents, effectively doubling it. Consequently, we are looking to fill a substantial number of positions to meet this increased demand. Right now, we are about 50 percent toward that goal of where our partners at Lutheran Services believe we need to be. The exact number of staff will depend on the number of residents. To ensure we do not move into the new facility and increase access quicker than we can fill positions, we will be doing a phased approached to increasing admissions to add staff and residents at a parallel progression to ensure the best quality of services is provided while also ensuring our staff have the tools and resources they need to be successful. Areas with the most significant needs include nursing staff, certified nursing assistants (CNAs), dietary aides, and housekeeping.”
Lofthouse says that work-life balance is very important in the recruitment process. “Promoting a supportive work environment that values work-life balance, which is increasingly important to today’s workforce. One of CIHA’s Guiding Principles ‘di qwa tse li i yu s di’ means ‘Like family to me’ ‘He, she, they, are like my own family’, and we put that into practice within our work culture to care for our employees and strive to give them the support they need in all areas of their life – not just when they are clocked in here.”
She said the recruitment campaigns, incentive programs, and career advancement opportunities will all aid in the staffing issues. “We believe these efforts will help us overcome our current staffing challenges and continue to provide exceptional care to our community.”
For more information on the Job Fair, call (828) 497-9163, ext. 6456 or visit www.cherokeehospital.org.
