Every day thousands of committed health care professionals come to work in your hospitals to ensure we deliver the highest quality care to patients.

That puts you among the state’s largest employers — directly employing 107,000 people, supporting 113,000 related jobs, and contributing more than $30 billion each year to our state’s economy.

Health care is a key economic driver nationwide, too, with health care recently surpassing manufacturing and retail to become the largest source of jobs in the U.S.

In listening to you, though, and probing the data, we understand there are challenges. Right now, your hospitals and health systems are coping with more than 6,000 vacancies. Many of these openings are in critical areas, like your emergency departments and behavioral health units.

The problems will compound as our population ages – the share of Marylanders aged 65 or older will rise from about 15% today to 20% in 2030 – just as the pipeline of well-prepared caregivers may narrow.

That’s why MHA’s strategic plan has as one of its pillars to build a “robust, diverse, inclusive and engaged healthcare workforce.” This will manifest in our legislative priorities going into the Maryland General Assembly’s 2020 session. And, it’s evident in the work of the Workplace Violence Steering Committee and the newly formed Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group.

We look forward to helping the field collectively to solve these challenges.

Please enjoy a safe and happy Labor Day holiday next week.