Most of Ohio’s major healthcare employers plan on hiring in 2012, but they’re understandably reluctant to predict the number of new jobs they might create over the course of the year.
Major hospitals in the state look likely to mirror a national trend in healthcare jobs: a greater emphasis on outpatient care and workers who support it.
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In 2011, jobs in the healthcare industry grew more than any other industry, accounting for about 20 percent of all jobs created. The Bureau of Labor Statistics breaks healthcare jobs down into three categories: ambulatory or outpatient service accounted for 43.8 percent of overall healthcare jobs created last year; hospitals (33.7 percent), and nursing and residential care (22.5 percent).
Even within the hospital category, it’s likely that much of the hiring came in the form of outpatient care workers. That’s the way 2012 is shaping up for Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals (UH), a competing Northeast Ohio health system.
“There is growth in our new outpatient facilities that have been recently opened,” Cleveland Clinic spokeswoman Eileen Sheil said. “There are also many open nursing positions and other areas given the size of the organization.”
Sheil added that it was difficult to say the number of positions for which the Clinic would be hiring. “At any given time, however, we have hundreds of open positions, and are recruiting continuously,” she said.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
UH spokeswoman Alicia Reale Cooney said hiring at the hospital would “remain steady,” with UH expected to fill about 2,000 positions with internal and external candidates over the course of the year. Part of the demand for new workers will come from an outpatient care center opening in suburban Aurora, Cooney said. (UH is also hiring for a new suburban outpatient rehabilitation center.)
Here’s a roundup of what a few other major Ohio healthcare employers are saying about their hiring outlook for 2012:
Ohio State University Medical Center: OSUMC plans to add between 500 and 700 clinical and administrative staff members this year, according to spokesman David Crawford. That coincides with a $1 billion expansion of the center. Hiring will focus on the areas of cancer and critical care.
Cardinal Health: Columbus-area pharmaceuticals distributor Cardinal is the state’s largest company by revenues. It typically hires “several thousand” employees each year due to growth and turnover, and expects 2012 to be the same, said Brian Moore, vice president of talent acquisition.
“We’re always interested in new talent in fields including finance, information technology and marketing,” Moore said. “Because we serve customers in all 50 states and operate more than 60 distribution centers throughout the country, we also have a broad geographic interest in hiring candidates with experience in healthcare sales, pharmacy, operations and logistics.”
STERIS: The Mentor, Ohio-based sterilization products maker typically doesn’t discuss trends it’s seeing in hiring or disclose employee numbers by location, spokesman Steve Norton said. Norton did mention that STERIS has previously disclosed plans to hire 75 to 100 workers at a new fabrication plant at its corporate headquarters in suburban Cleveland.
[Photo from flickr user lydiashiningbrightly]
