GOVERNOR RENDELL ANNOUNCES NEW PENNSYLVANIA CENTER FOR HEALTH CAREERS

							HARRISBURG: Gov. Edward G. Rendell today delivered on a campaign promise by creating the
Pennsylvania Center for Health Careers to address the critical shortage in nursing and other key
health-care careers in the state.

"Health care is a personal and economic consideration for all Pennsylvanians at many points of their lives
," Governor Rendell said. "The medical and health-care industry is so vast, pervasive and rapidly
changing that it demands a specific and structured agenda to match services and resources to needs.

"This Center is a key step in my overall plan for improving Pennsylvania's health-care system and will
serve as an Industry Partnership prototype that will be the first major step toward improving our entire
workforce development system," the Governor said. "Pennsylvania's health-care industry is a critical
driving force of the state economy."

A recent study by the Milken Institute - an independent economic think tank - ranks Pennsylvania as the
number one state in the U.S. for its concentration of health-care employment. The commonwealth has
nearly 800,000 health-care jobs and an additional 82,000 employees in biomedical companies.

"Our hospitals alone provide nearly $34 billion in direct and secondary spending and the rippling effect
results in an estimated 438,000 Pennsylvania jobs," Governor Rendell said. "However, we currently have
an estimated 17,000 nursing and health-care job openings, and projections show significant increases in
unfilled positions in the future.

"The Center for Health Careers will provide a coordinated plan and focused leadership to address future
demands; target career outreach; and provide financial assistance to students and educational
programs," according to Sandi Vito, Deputy Secretary for Workforce Development in the Department of
Labor & Industry, who is overseeing coordination of workforce strategies across multiple state agencies.

The Center will be a private/public Industry Partnership of health-care employers, industry and
professional associations, educational institutions, labor unions, foundations, Commonwealth agencies -
including the Departments of Labor & Industry; Health; the Governor's Office of Health Care Reform; and
the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency - and others working collaboratively to address
the commonwealth's current and future health-care workforce needs.

The Center for Health Careers will serve as a catalyst to develop action-oriented strategies to address
Pennsylvania's short- and long-term health-care workforce challenges. In its first year, the Center seeks
to address four key challenges:

* Increasing educational capacity.

* Creating career ladders in health care.

* Helping employers retain health care workers.

* Establishing a regional direct care workforce center pilot project.

"I want to thank the three Leadership Council co-chairs - Gerald Miller, president and CEO of
Crozer-Keystone Health System, Delaware County; Eileen Connelly, executive director of Pennsylvania's
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) State Council, Dauphin County; and Kathleen Malloy
Ph.D., vice president for Health Professions at the Community College of Allegheny County - whose
leadership I am sure will spark the Council to significant accomplishments," Governor Rendell said.

The Center will be housed, coordinated and staffed by the Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board
(PA WIB), led by Executive Director Fred Dedrick, and directed by a private/public Leadership Council. In
the coming months, the Center will hold a series of regional meetings with health-care and education
leaders to develop strategies to enable nursing schools to graduate more registered nurses and licensed
practical nurses who will practice in Pennsylvania.
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