Marty Mayer, Board President, and Chris Masingill, CEO of St. Tammany Corporation, announced the launch of “Northshore Healthscape: A Collaborative Enhancing the Pulse of our Regional Healthcare Economy,” a three-year healthcare sector strategy pilot program.
Key stakeholders in this collaborative represent St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington parishes, including North Oaks Health System, Ochsner Northshore-Mississippi Gulf Coast Region, Our Lady of the Lake Northshore, Slidell Memorial Hospital, St. Tammany Health System, and St. Tammany Corporation.
Healthcare is a major economic driver on the Northshore in terms of both jobs and productivity, contributing more than $1.5 billion to the three-parish regional GDP. The industry represents 22,000 jobs in the area, and demand continues with 5,000 unique postings for jobs in the past 12 months alone. Projections indicate that jobs in this sector will increase by 11% by 2026.
As population grows across the Northshore, local healthcare leaders have expanded services to improve access to care closer to home. As a result, patients generally do not have to travel long distances for the care that they or their families need. Northshore healthcare institutions need a talented and skilled workforce qualified to provide these enhanced services, so educating and training the next generation of talent is paramount.
Since February 2021, St. Tammany Corporation has facilitated quarterly virtual roundtable meetings with the healthcare industry featuring robust, collaborative, and solutions-focused dialogue. These quarterly virtual meetings are an opportunity to discuss strategic priorities for collaboration, workforce development, and talent retention.
Northshore Healthscape is the outcome of these engagements and represents formalization of the collaboration among industry, workforce, and economic development. Recognizing the unique opportunities, challenges, and needs of our healthcare ecosystem, the priority areas of work for the pilot program are capacity building, workforce and talent, ecosystem development, and strategic implementation. Key deliverables in the pilot program’s first year include a healthcare infrastructure assessment conducted by VisionFirst Advisors, targeted efforts to address immediate and short-term workforce and talent needs, the development of a Northshore healthcare branding campaign, and the production of an industry impact report.
