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Greetings From Irene M. Ibarra These shortages are driven by several factors, including the state’s growing population, an increase in demand for health care services by an aging population, the retirement of baby boomer health professionals, difficulties in providing competitive salaries for clinical faculty and rural providers, and disparity of salaries between clinical and academic positions. An inadequate number of health care providers presents a serious challenge to the provision of safe, quality patient care. It also increases the already significant problem of providing access to health care for all Coloradans. The good news is that multiple efforts are underway to develop fiscally and morally responsible means to provide health care coverage for Coloradans. While that offers hope to the estimated 790,000 people in our state who now lack health insurance, it would not solve our access to health challenge to more fully provide coverage without also making sure that Colorado has an adequate number of trained health care professions prepared to provide care. In collaboration with many dedicated partners, The Trust is committed to supporting a coordinated system of policies, programs and services that both expand health coverage, and improve and expand health care. In this newsletter, we feature efforts underway to build Colorado’s health professions workforce.
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The Colorado Trust
Achieving access to health for all Coloradans
Community Connections:
2008 Spring Edition
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Colorado is scrambling to build its health professions workforce, and with good reason. While there is a nationwide shortage of nurses, it’s estimated that the shortage of registered nurses in Colorado is already twice that of the national average and is expected to triple by 2020. There also are extreme shortages in rural parts of the state. Fourteen of Colorado’s rural counties lack a hospital, eight do not have any assisted-living or long-term care facilities, four don’t have a single primary care physician and five have no dentists.