advocate for what's best for our patients.
[MUSIC] addressing violence against
health care workers are two points addressed in the
Wisconsin Hospital Association's 2025 Workforce
Report. However, in a turn from recent years, the
health care workforce is making gains slowly.
>> We've actually upgraded our workforce condition in
Wisconsin from critical but stable to serious but
stable. We've made some real good gains in some
professions, like certified nursing assistant, where
we're actually seeing vacancy rates go down. We're
also seeing improved retention, less turnover,
really helps, not just in numbers but in expertise in
our annual workforce report. The last several years,
we've talked about violence against health care workers,
new data just out from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
shows that despite great effort and partnerships
between hospital leaders, their workforce, state
policymakers, law enforcement that the
incidents of intentional injury against healthcare
workers by another person is actually higher. And so we
need to continue every effort we can to report and
take action on any incident that occurs. Wisconsin
actually was the first in the nation to create an
enhanced penalty. A class H felony, for violence against
healthcare workers, and threats of violence. We have
to grow the workforce faster, but with the
demographic changes going on, it's unlikely that our
workforce will grow fast enough. So we're asking for
good health care policy that supports faster growth.
Costs are rising, salaries are rising, supply costs are
rising, and reimbursement, especially from Medicaid and
Medicare, what we call government payers, is not
keeping pace. So to support and sustain our workforce,