Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 2, 1994 TAG: 9312290261
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF DeBELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Health care.
A Roanoke-based talent hunter who specializes in health care, King says the field is hot and promises to get hotter as a career prospect.
An example is occupational and physical therapists. King said they are\ earning degrees in numbers far below the demand for their services and command starting salaries as high as $40,000 in some areas. The average entry-level salary for an occupational therapist in Virginia is $30,737, according to the Virginia Health Council Inc.
"Once you're out of school, your ticket's written," King said. "If you've\ got kids, tell them to go into therapy."
"That is totally true," said Greg Dowdy, director of human resources at Friendship Manor. "We have two [therapists] on our staff. We try to treat them very well."
Therapists aren't the only health-care workers who are in demand. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, health care is one of the 10\ industries that will grow fastest between 1992 and 2005.
The bureau says 12 of the 20 fastest-growing individual career possibilities\ in the United States will be in health care. In addition to occupational and\ physical therapists, they include medical secretaries, surgical technologists, home-health aides and radiologic technicians.
In the Virginia Employment Commission's occupational employment projections for 1988-2000, 10 of the 20 jobs expected to have the "largest percent increase in employment" are in health care. Home-health aides lead the list with a projected growth of 85 percent over the period. The VEC projects 4,728 openings statewide for home-health aides - 2,991 of them because of growth in the field\ by 2000.
"It's the place to be," said Sue Speese, executive director of the Virginia Health Council Inc. "The diversity of jobs is incredible."
The council has renamed its annual publication because of the demand, Speese\ said. Formerly called "A Health Careers Reference Manual," it is now titled\ "Opportunities for a Lifetime."
The VEC does not do occupational projections at the city or county level. It\ does do them for Metropolitan Statistical Areas, or MSAs, however, and\ projections for the Roanoke MSA mirror what the VEC says will be going on\ statewide.
"Roanoke serves a much bigger area than just the metro area," VEC senior\ economist William Mezger said. "It's the health-care provider, for any really\ serious illness, for all of Southwest Virginia."
On the average, nearly 12,000 people are employed in health care every\ month in the MSA. Carilion Health System, which operates Roanoke Memorial\ Hospital and Community Hospital of the Roanoke Valley along with medical\ facilities other localities, is headquartered in Roanoke and employs more than\ 5,300 people.
According to the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce, that makes Carilion\ the valley's largest single employer.
The Roanoke MSA includes Roanoke and Salem and Roanoke, Botetourt and Craig\ counties.
Six of the MSA's 10 fastest-growing occupations, and eight of the top 20,\ are in health care. Home-health aides, medical assistants, medical secretaries\ and registered nurses lead the list.
"I can't imagine someone not being able to find a position as a nurse in the\ Roanoke Valley," Friendship Manor's Greg Dowdy said. He added that job growth\ among health-care practitioners seems to cause a parallel expansion in the\ bureaucracy.
The paper-pushers are needed to deal with myriad government regulations and\ thereby free practitioners to concentrate on their patients. Dowdy foresees a\ day when `'there will be a person to fill out papers for every single\ care-giver."
Medical office work can be lucrative. The most qualified and experienced "health information" technicians and administrators can earn $60,000 a year, according to the Health Information Management Association. Average starting pay in Virginia is $19,107 for health-information technicians.
According to the most recent figures of the VEC, the average weekly wage for\ health-care workers in the state is $498. The figure compares favorably with\ manufacturing ($511), construction ($380) and especially with other\ service-sector occupations such as hotel worker ($205) and clothing\ salesperson ($185).
Though experts foresee continued openings at every level in health care,\ the demand does not mean riches for every worker. Orderlies, food-service\ workers, physician assistants and home-health aides, for example, can expect to\ make far less than certified therapists, physicians and the like. As in every field, pay is related to education, training and experience.
"The more you put in, the more you can earn," Dowdy said.
Starting pay for hospital orderlies and home-health aides is in the range\ of $6.50 to $7 an hour, according to the health council's Speese. She said\ registered nurses can command $26,000 to $32,000 per year.
The salary for physicians depends on their specialty, but Meese said family\ practitioners are fairly representative. They start at between $80,000 and\ $100,000 in Virginia.
Nationally, regionally and locally, the American economy is shifting its\ base from goods-producing to service-providing. The growth in health-care\ occupations is a reflection of that shift. It also reflects demographic trends and changing health-care practices.
The American population is aging, and people are living longer, thereby\ creating a need for more health care. At the same time, there is greater\ emphasis on outpatient treatment, including surgery, and home care. In\ addition, the health-care reform movement is gathering momentum, though its\ final form remains unknown.
The upshot of it all, said Laura Land of Carilion, could be a health-care\ system that differs significantly from its traditional forms, even while it\ grows.
"It's not that we won't be looking for people," said Land, who is Carilion's director of employment. "But we may be looking for people to do things differently than they do now. I believe the growth is there, but it may be in different forms."
by CNB