Colorado Health Care Workforce

Colorado hospitals are committed to delivering safe, high-quality health care to the patients and communities they serve. Based on the most recent data collected from members, Colorado hospitals and health systems employ and contract with more than 96,000 health care workers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically shifted the conversations about supporting and building the health care workforce. An analysis done by Emsi found that Colorado will be facing a shortage of 54k “lower wage” health care workers and more than 10k registered nurses by 2026. 

With this in mind, CHA entered the 2022 legislative session with a clear priority: supporting short-, medium-, and long-term solutions to care for the existing workforce and to build it for the future. 

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Existing Hospital Employees
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Shortage by 2026

Below are two of the recent examples of work CHA has engaged in to support the health care workforce in Colorado: 

Chapter 4 Regulations

Updated in 2021, Chapter 4 are the state regulations that hospitals must comply with, including nurse staffing standards.

Chapter 4 Nurse Staffing Standards

Recent revisions to Chapter 4 set a standard for nurse staffing while ensuring the ability of frontline nurses to contribute to decision making through shared governance.
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Workforce Coalition

CHA convened a coalition of health care organizations from across the state to address some of the most pressing workforce needs.

Workforce Priorities:

CHA and its partner organizations have been focusing on: developing an evidence-based approach to long-term workforce pipeline planning and execution; building the resources necessary to support the existing workforce; and leveraging federal dollars to retain current workforce and begin growing pipeline.