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 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. 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.

In February 2021, St. Tammany Corporation launched the St. Tammany Healthcare Leadership Roundtable, another proactive step for economic development to engage a key economic driver in our economy—the healthcare industry—in a robust, collaborative and solutions-focused facilitated dialogue. These quarterly virtual roundtable meetings are an opportunity to discuss strategic priorities for collaboration, workforce development and talent retention. As the engagement evolved, there was a clear desire among partners to pursue a healthcare infrastructure assessment, prioritize workforce development and talent solutions by leveraging St. Tammany Corporation’s existing Workforce Roundtable, and formalize this collaborative effort.

In February 2022, St. Tammany Corporation presented the concept of a three-year healthcare sector pilot program, “Northshore Healthscape: A Collaborative Enhancing the Pulse of our Regional Healthcare Economy”. Recognizing the 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, tangible efforts to address immediate and short-term workforce and talent needs, the development of a Northshore healthcare collective branding campaign and the production of an industry impact report. Specific benchmarks will be determined for each of these priority areas of work, and the success of the pilot program’s first year will be measured by those agreed upon benchmarks.

St. Tammany Corporation will serve as the coordinator and project manager for this comprehensive sector strategy implementation. Participants in the broader initiative also include key stakeholders throughout the healthcare industry on the Northshore, with dynamic engagement from our workforce and education partners to enhance workforce retention and development initiatives.

As executive representatives of the following entities, we confirm our commitment to Northshore Healthscape and our participation in this initiative through both our financial and human capital contributions. The three-year pilot program and our participation will be evaluated on an annual basis.

To read the full press release on the Northshore Healthscape launch, click here.