JCMC to Upgrade the Skills of 24 Incumbent Workers for Medical Records and Patient Care Positions
Greater Newark Workforce Funders Collaborative Awards a $100,000 Grant to Prepare Jersey City Medical Center Entry-Level Workers for Careers
<0> CareerWorks: Greater Newark Workforce Funders CollaborativeRegina Barboza, 973-596-6400 ext. 203 </0>
CareerWorks: Greater Newark Workforce Funders Collaborative today announced a one-year, $100,000 grant to Jersey City Medical Center to advance 24 incumbent workers through training in Electronic Medical Records and Multi-Skills HealthCare Tech – skills that support the institution, which is Hudson County’s largest provider of healthcare services and is recognized by as a top regional hospital.
The Collaborative seeks to create employer-led or employer-centric “workforce partnerships,” a nationally recognized model for aligning skills development and training to employers’ true career requirements. CareerWorks seeks to create a steady pipeline of technically proficient workers for the healthcare industry to meet increasing demand for services and overcome primary care shortages in northern New Jersey.
JCMC will prepare entry-level workers such as patient escorts, ward data entry clerks, security officers, and building service workers for positions that offer earnings of $13 to $18 per hour. In partnership with William Paterson University and McNamara & Associates, JCMC will train 24 incumbent workers and provide individual case management to prepare them for career pathways as patient access representatives, electronic medical records clerks, unit clerks and multi-skilled healthcare techs.
“Jersey City Medical Center’s commitment to patients starts with our commitment to hiring and advancing the best staff, including physicians, nurses and our frontline workers,” said Joseph F. Scott, President and Chief Executive Officer of Jersey City Medical Center. “We feel that our employees who complete this program will be poised for family sustaining careers within our award-winning integrated healthcare delivery system, thereby ensuring that our reputation for excellence in patient care continues.”
In the past two years, both and chose Jersey City Medical Center as one of the “Top 100 Places to Work in Healthcare” in the United States. In part, these distinctions are attributable to JCMC’s long-standing commitment to investing in its workforce. It offers numerous training programs to advance workers, and hosts focus groups to determine which careers both interest workers and map to its workforce needs.
“Revitalizing communities requires improving the skills of adults in the context of what employers need within growth sectors,” said Elliott D. Lee, Community Relations Executive for New Jersey at JPMorgan Chase. "CareerWorks is a public-private collaborative whose investments ensure that incumbent workers and job seekers gain the skills they need to advance while helping businesses in healthcare and other sectors grow."
Other CareerWorks workforce partnerships include the Barnabas Health Healthcare Opportunities for Personnel through Education (HOPE) program, in which Jewish Vocational Service provides basic computer training to upgrade the skills of hundreds of incumbent entry-level workers. Phase two of that program will prepare 80 workers such as dietary and housekeeping aides for higher-paying positions such as certified nursing assistants and unit secretaries/unit clerks, which offer defined career paths. In the next couple of months, CareerWorks will launch a pilot program to train 42 Newark job seekers in Emergency Medical Technician skills. In 2013, the Greater Newark Workforce Funders Collaborative plans to issue grants in support of the transportation, logistics and distribution sector which, like healthcare, is a regional economic engine.
The Greater Newark Workforce Funders Collaborative is the only regional collaborative of workforce investors in New Jersey and the 31st collaborative to join the award-winning National Fund for Workforce Solutions network of innovative workforce solutions across the country. The Greater Newark Workforce Funders Collaborative seeks to link and leverage public and private dollars as it taps business, civic, and philanthropic stakeholders to develop a sustainable workforce pipeline that advances low-skilled workers and growth industries in northern New Jersey. The Collaborative’s funders include The Prudential Foundation, Newark Alliance, Bergen County Workforce Investment Board (WIB), Garfield Foundation, Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, Hudson County WIB, JPMorgan Chase, Kessler Foundation, National Fund for Workforce Solutions, Newark WIB/Newark Works, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Nicholson Foundation, PNC Bank, United Way of Essex and West Hudson, Victoria Foundation, Walmart Foundation and Wells Fargo Foundation.
Jersey City Medical Center (JCMC) is a modern 316-bed teaching hospital located on a 14-acre campus overlooking the Statue of Liberty and NY Harbor. This location makes it convenient to major highways, PATH, and bus, with a light rail stop located on our campus. JCMC is the largest provider of healthcare services in Hudson County, with over 18,000 admissions and 80,000 ER visits per year. JCMC is a not-for-profit hospital which is part of LibertyHealth. It is the regional trauma center, a state-designated stroke center, the regional comprehensive cardiac center, the perinatal intensive care center, and the regional level-3 neonatal intensive care unit for the most critically ill newborns. Additionally, it is the provider of Advanced Life Support for Hudson County, provides 911 Medical Call Screening for Hudson County, and operates one of the state’s busiest EMS systems. Jersey City Medical Center also is a major provider of behavioral health services, including 24/7 psychiatric emergency / crisis screening programs. The hospital has been recognized: as a Magnet Hospital for Nursing Excellence; as a top performer in quality and safety by the Joint Commission; with an “A” rating for safety by the Leapfrog Group; as a “top hospital” for its size for two consecutive years by Castle Connelly; and by as a top regional hospital. In addition, in the past two years both and chose Jersey City Medical Center as one of the “Top 100 Places to Work in Healthcare in the United States.” Additional information about Jersey City Medical Center can be found at . For physician referral, call 855-JCMC-DOCS.