'Grow Your Own' Grant Will Help Saint Luke's Health System Enhance Health Care Workforce

$50,000 Hospital Grant Funds Saint Luke Leadership Development Program For High Performing Employees Looking For Growth

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Saint Luke's Health System has been awarded a "Grow Your Own" grant from the Missouri Hospital Association to help retain and enhance the System's health care workforce. The grant of $50,000 will be used to support system leadership succession planning .

The aging population, and a growing number of individuals with chronic conditions and expanded access to health insurance have led to increasing demands on the health care system. These factors and others have generated an urgent need for additional hospital caregivers. In addition, implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which includes significant changes to payments and health care delivery systems, coupled with new technology, such as electronic health records, has increased demand for workers with highly specialized skills.

"Saint Luke's Health System is honored to have been chosen to receive a 'Grow Your Own' grant which will enable us to strengthen and develop our System leadership team," said Melinda L. Estes, M.D., President and CEO of Saint Luke's Health System. "One of our greatest strengths lies in our people. Given the financial reality of healthcare today, it is extremely valuable to be able to use these funds to develop, and ensure we retain, the leaders necessary to guide our health system into the future."

Saint Luke's Health System will use Grow Your Own funds to create a leadership development program for high performing employees that offers them a visible, formal learning track, and develops their leadership skills in sixteen areas identified by the system as attributes critical in leaders.

"The workforce challenge for Missouri hospitals is two-fold," said Herb B. Kuhn, MHA president and CEO. "First, hospitals must address the shortage of educated health care workers, including primary care physicians, nurses, therapists and imaging technicians, to meet the expanding demand for care. Second, hospital leaders also must recruit and retain talented individuals to manage increasingly complex health care organizations. The Grow Your Own program allows hospitals to address these challenges with plans that are tailored to the needs of their organizations and the communities they serve."

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 health care, educational institutions and nonprofit organizations with experience in health care grant development and funding processes.

About Saint Luke's Health System

Saint Luke's Health System consists of 10 area hospitals and several primary and specialty care practices, and provides a range of inpatient, outpatient and home care services. Founded as a faith-based, not-for-profit organization, our mission includes a commitment to the highest levels of excellence in health care and the advancement of medical research and education. The health system is an aligned organization in which the physicians and hospitals assume responsibility for enhancing the physical, mental and spiritual health of people in the metropolitan Kansas City area and the surrounding region.

SOURCE Saint Luke's Health System