Skip to Navigation | Skip to Content

Health Care Workforce

Overview

Blog: Lott on Health Care
Health Care Workforce

Critical shortages in the health care workforce place access to quality care at risk. Read about the workforce issues facing hospitals, clinics and other facilities in Lott on Health Care.

Jim Lott is the executive vice president of the Hospital Association of Southern California where he is responsible for health care policy development, advocacy, and association communications for hospitals serving Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties.

Blog entry

Lott has left the building!

Dear readers:

This will be my last post, as I am leaving HASC at the end of next month.  Health is fine, work is great, just moving on to the next chapter of my life, which will be in health care…what else would I do?

I have enjoyed writing this blog, and I thank all of you who have told me that you like reading what I write.  I will truly miss doing this.

Again, I’m still at HASC until May 31, so drop me a line or call.  After I leave, you may reach me on my cell at 213-324-3262 or by email at JLottSr@me.com.

Blog entry

Dr. Watson, I Presume?

In my January 24th blog post, Taming Medicare’s Budget Appetite, I mentioned Watson, IBM’s supercomputer Wellpoint purchased to help medical practitioners make diagnoses and prescribe treatment plans. Not satisfied with beating the two top Jeopardy game show champions, Watson has been busy learning how to be the best doctor on the planet.

Blog entry

“Mr. Jones, the nurse practitioner will see you now.”

Substitute “physician assistant” or “pharmacist” in this phrase, and this may become a commonplace introduction patients seeking medical care will hear in the future.  Why?  Legislatures throughout our nation are looking for ways to bridge a looming shortage of doctors caused by the approaching exodus of aging physicians and the increased demand for access to physician-led care by millions of newly-insured Americans, courtesy of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) enacted in 2010. 

Blog entry

Our Hospital Heroes for 2012

James Lott

Once a year for the past seven years, our community of hospitals in Southern California comes together to honor the most giving of themselves, the laborers of the planet.  Okay, so we are a little biased about the people working in our hospitals. Here are but five of the extraordinary people we honored last week along with their stories.

Our first award went to a nurse and social worker on the front lines of a busy hospital who teamed up to fix a problem that plagues emergency rooms everywhere … frequent fliers. 

Blog entry

Women in Health Care

James Lott Jim Lott

In the mid-1960s, women comprised less than 9% of the nation’s medical students. Their ranks nearly tripled within a decade, and they doubled once again in short order, topping 40% of all students throughout the 1990s. Earlier in this decade, women briefly became the majority of all medical students. This shift is all the more remarkable given the number of medical school slots in the U.S. has not changed much in the past 30 years while the number of overall applicants has increased.

Blog entry

Nursing Shortage Update

James Lott Jim Lott

The national nursing shortage is well documented and has been felt acutely throughout our country’s hospitals. What is especially troubling is that if nothing is done to remedy the problem, the national supply of registered nurses will remain virtually unchanged by 2020. In contrast, the demand for nurses will soar by 2020: the 6 percent shortfall could grow five-fold to 29 percent.

Blog entry

Emergency Room On Call Physician Coverage on Life Support

James Lott

Emergency department (ED) on-call systems are on the brink of disaster. Spiraling downward nationally, they fare even worse in California. It’s a simple problem of supply and demand. Hospital executives are finding it increasingly more difficult to get physician specialists (e.g., orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, obstetricians, general surgeons and others) to be on call should their services be needed in the emergency room.