Missouri Hospital Association President Speaks to TCMH Board
August 29, 2013Smith Named Employee of the Month
September 6, 2013Texas County Memorial Hospital has been awarded a “Grow Your Own” grant from the Missouri Hospital Association to help train the hospital’s current healthcare workforce and train future healthcare workers for the state of Missouri.
The grant of $50,000 will be used to purchase a human patient simulator for obstetrics and a new patient bed that will be kept at the Cox College on Drury University’s Cabool campus for training nursing students and for providing continuing education for TCMH employees.
“We are pleased to be able to partner with other local institutions that also have healthcare training needs to bring a simulation mannequin to our county for healthcare education and continuing education,” Wes Murray, TCMH chief executive officer, said.
The MHA has taken special interest in the aging population, growing number of individuals with chronic conditions and expanded access to health insurance which place increasing demands on the healthcare system.
“Now, more than ever, we need well-trained healthcare providers,” Murray said. “This grant will help us provide additional education to our workforce as well as providing state of the art training for our up and coming healthcare workforce.”
The MHA believes there is an urgent need for healthcare providers in the state of Missouri, so they created the Grow Your Own program to help address some of the needs created by the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and new technology such as electronic medical records.
“Like hospitals across the state, we are seeing an increased demand for highly skilled workers,” Murray said.
“The workforce challenge for Missouri is two-fold,” Herb B. Kuhn, MHA president and CEO, said. “First and foremost, hospitals must address the shortage of education healthcare workers. Second, hospital leaders must recruit and retain talented individuals to manage increasingly complex healthcare organizations.”
Kuhn explained that the Grow Your Own program was created to allow hospitals to address their educational, recruiting and retention challenges.
“Grow Your Own allows hospitals to create programs that are tailored to meet the needs of the organizations and communities they serve,” Kuhn said.
Applications for the Grow Your Own Hospital Grant Program were submitted in July. The applications were reviewed and selected by an independent committee composed of representatives from healthcare and educational institutions and nonprofit organizations with experience in healthcare grant development and funding processes.