MetroHealth's Partnership with Lincoln-West High School Serves as Model for New Federal Grant Funding Program

This week, Congresswoman Shontel Brown (OH-11) introduced legislation to help more students pursue careers in health care and address the nation's health care workforce shortage. The Expanding the Health Care Workforce Act authorizes a new federal demonstration grant program to help hospitals create or expand work-based learning programs for high school students.

Congresswoman Brown's legislation would allow hospitals and schools across the country to follow the blueprint established by MetroHealth and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD). CMSD's Lincoln-West School of Science and Health is the only high school in America with classrooms located in a hospital. For more information on the partnership between Lincoln-West and the MetroHealth System, click here.

In 2023, Congresswoman Brown hosted a roundtable at MetroHealth highlighting this innovative program with US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and officials from MetroHealth and Lincoln-West.

The Expanding the Health Care Workforce Act, introduced with 19 cosponsors, authorizes the Department of Health and Human Services to award at least 20 demonstration grants across the country. Health care is one of the largest and fastest-growing employment sectors in the country, with widespread projections of a health care workforce shortage in coming years.

"I am proud to introduce the Expanding the Health Care Workforce Act - legislation that is good for students, good for patients, and good for our country. My new bill would allow hospitals and schools across the country to follow the blueprint that MetroHealth and Lincoln-West High School established in Northeast Ohio, creating a new federal grant program for work-based education programs at hospitals across the country. Earlier this Congress, I had the privilege of visiting the Lincoln-West and MetroHealth classrooms and to meet with recent graduates and educators. Thanks to this innovative program, hundreds of local students gain invaluable, hands-on experience that prepares them to enter the health care workforce, at MetroHealth," said Congresswoman Shontel Brown. "Expanding this model beyond Northeast Ohio would provide similar opportunities for students, while growing the workforce in the future so more care and service can be provided.

"First and foremost, I want to thank Congresswomen Shontel Brown for introducing this important legislation which will introduce more individuals to health care careers, help address the workforce shortages we face and strengthen the workforce pipeline," said MetroHealth President and CEO Christine Alexander, MD. "Lincoln-West School of Science & Health at MetroHealth, which opened in 2016, has been one of our proudest achievements and we are so honored that it is serving as a model for this proposal. We want other hospitals and school districts across the country to be able to take advantage of the tremendous benefits we have realized."

"We strongly support The Expanding the Health Care Workforce Act of 2024 as a pathway to expand our school, and for other schools to follow our innovative model," said Lisa Farmer Cole, Cleveland Metropolitan School District's Chief of External Affairs. "We are teaching health care with an equity lens, Farmer Cole said. This bill supports CMSD's Core Value of Equity and Inclusion, by allowing our scholars to have hands-on learning opportunities and a pipeline to the workforce."

The Expanding the Health Care Workforce Act is cosponsored by: Rep. Nanette Barragan (CA-44), Rep. Salud Carbajal (CA-24), Rep. Erica Lee Carter (TX-18), Rep. Troy Carter Sr. (LA-02), Rep. Yvette Clarke (NY-09), Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Rep. Debbie Dingell (MI-06), Rep. Jahana Hayes (CT-05), Rep. Robin Kelly (IL-02), Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), Rep. Greg Landsman (OH-01), Rep. Ted Leiu (CA-36), Rep. Jennifer McClellan (VA-04), Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (FL-20), Rep. LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), Rep. Gregory Meeks (NY-05), Rep. Grace Meng (NY-06), Rep. Andrea Salinas (OR-06) and Rep. Nikema Williams (GA-05).

Bill text available here.

The Expanding the Health Care Workforce Act

• Authorizes a new demonstration grant program for hospital systems to partner with schools to develop programs that address workforce shortages by exposing students to the field of health care and giving them hands-on learning opportunities.
  • Grant program administered by Department of Health and Human Services.
  • Grants would support programs allowing students to obtain high school diploma while placing them in health care focused work-based learning programs.
  • Grants would be awarded to health care providers seeking to expand or develop work-based learning programs.
    • Grant applications from hospitals serving a medically underserved population, located in a medically underserved community, or a community or rural hospital will be prioritized.
    • Grants are to be awarded equally across ten geographic regions of the country.
  • Legislation authorizes grant program for five years, requires at least 20 award grants.
  • The Department of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Department of Education is required to report to Congress on the success of the demonstration program within five years of its implementation.
    
    
• Healthcare occupations make up approximately 10% of total US employment according to the Department of Labor.
  • Over the next decade, employment growth for practitioners (nurses, dentists, therapists etc.) is projected to be 8% and healthcare support occupations (aides, assistants, etc.) is projected to be 15%. The average growth for all occupations is just 3%.
  • The American Hospital Association projects a workforce shortage of 100,000 healthcare workers by 2028.
    • For detailed shortage projections by field from the federal Bureau of Health Workforce, click here.