CA to try to increase number of healthcare support workers

In a move to try to increase the number of healthcare support workers in California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently revealed details of a $32 million partnership between the state and four organizations: The California Community Colleges System, the University of California system, the California State University system and the California Hospital Association. 

Known as the Allied Health Initiative, the state will provide $16 million to the effort, with the four organizations ponying up the other half. California needs all the help it can get in filling occupations like pharmacists and lab and radiation technologists; the state allegedly has less than 75 percent of the per capita national average number in all of those areas. 

California's Labor and Workforce Development Agency, which will lead the efforts of this partnership, believes that in the next six years, the state will have to educate upwards of 206,000 healthcare workers to complete this task. 

To learn more about this partnership:
- check out this Modern Healthcare article

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