NEW Healthcare Alliance aims to build regional workforce solution

Lori Kaye Lodes

Contributor

June 29, 2026

NORTHEAST WISCONSIN – Healthcare organizations across the region are confronting a workforce shortage that Rebecca Deschane – vice president of talent development for New North Inc. – said cannot be solved through a single recruitment strategy.

Deschane said the core challenge is a limited talent pool across nearly every role in the sector, from physicians and nurses to technicians, therapists, administrators and support staff, at a time when demand for care continues to rise – particularly in rural communities where shortages can directly impact access.

She said the issue extends beyond healthcare delivery, noting the industry’s role as a major regional economic driver that influences job growth, productivity and business attraction and retention.

In response, Deschane said healthcare systems, educational institutions, workforce agencies, nonprofits and community partners have formed the NEW Healthcare Alliance – a regional initiative focused on strengthening talent pipelines, expanding career pathways and developing collaborative workforce solutions across Northeast Wisconsin’s 18 counties.

“Our partners understand they can’t solve this individually and that it takes a collective effort to address some of these common concerns,” she said.

Deschane said the alliance – formally launched following nearly two years of planning and collaboration – recognizes that workforce shortages are no longer isolated organizational challenges.

Instead, she said they are regional challenges requiring regional solutions.

“The main focus is on the talent pipeline: the future talent coming up through our K-12 schools and retaining talent that has already gone through training, upskilling or reskilling into health care as a second career or a pivot from what they’re already doing,” she said.

Deschane said the alliance also is focused on strengthening clinical placements and preceptor opportunities, critical components of training future healthcare professionals.

Though issues such as demographics, rural access to care and health system consolidation continue to shape the broader health care landscape, Deschane said workforce development remains the alliance’s central focus.

“As we’re getting started, we’re really focusing on the talent piece,” she said.

A workforce challenge years in the making

Deschane said the labor shortage facing healthcare organizations did not emerge overnight.

She said health systems nationwide are grappling with an aging workforce, rising demand for services and intensifying talent competition – pressures that are also being felt in Northeast Wisconsin.

Deschane said employers across the region consistently point to workforce availability as their most pressing concern.

“At the end of the day, it’s truly the number of individuals available to work in the field,” she said.

Deschane said the challenge is evident in the long-term planning occurring throughout the industry.

During a recent healthcare panel discussion, Deschane said a regional provider reported having already hired a cardiologist who will not begin practicing until 2030. 

This example, she said, underscores how far in advance healthcare organizations are planning to meet future demand.

“When thinking about a different approach to what are we doing and how do we address attraction and retention, our health systems are already looking ahead to identify those specialists to come in and fill those roles and the needs in the organization,” she said.

Deschane said the challenge becomes even more significant in rural communities, where attracting specialized providers and maintaining access to care often proves more difficult.

At the same time, workforce shortages are not limited to physicians and nurses.

“The healthcare industry is more than just nursing or doctors,” she said. “There is a wide spectrum of career options available that serve and support our region – career pathways that we want people to know they can stay in our region and be connected to meaningful work.”

Those opportunities, Deschane said, include careers in business administration, human resources, marketing, facilities management, information technology, dietary services, maintenance and countless other support functions that help healthcare organizations operate effectively. 

That broader perspective, she said, is one reason alliance leaders believe workforce development efforts must begin earlier and reach a wider audience.

Building pathways before shortages become crises

Deschane said a major focus of the alliance involves helping students and prospective employees better understand the variety of careers available within health care.

Communication, she said, remains one of the biggest opportunities for improvement.

“How do we share what resources are available and get to the right individual to understand how to be connected?” she said.

Deschane said many students simply are not aware of some of the industry’s highest-demand careers.

The alliance, she said, is working closely with K-12 schools, higher education institutions and workforce partners to create clearer career pathways and increase awareness of available opportunities.

“We have business partnerships, but do we have the right pathways?” she said. “We need students to understand if you want to go into the healthcare field, these are the highest opportunities for entry-level engagement.”

Deschane said the goal is to help students understand not only how to enter the industry but also how they can continue advancing throughout their careers.

“Helping them understand how to enter in one path and grow and upskill into other opportunities [is an important part of the strategy],” she said.

Katie Hughes – associate dean of health at Moraine Park Technical College and a member of the alliance’s steering committee and clinical services and engagement subcommittee – said bringing educational institutions and healthcare organizations together creates opportunities to identify workforce needs that otherwise might go unnoticed.

“All representatives of higher education and healthcare agencies are coming with a little bit different focus, but we’re all looking toward filling the workforce needs,” she said. “We can’t do that if we’re not educating the students to take those positions, and to do that, we need clinical placements and partnerships with healthcare agencies.”

Hughes said Wisconsin’s technical colleges have the programs, resources and mission to respond to workforce demand, but educators need employers to clearly communicate where shortages exist.

“We may not offer a program here at Moraine Park or Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, but we could if there is a need,” she said. “We don’t know there is a need unless they tell us that.”

Hughes said the alliance creates a forum where healthcare organizations can share information about open positions, emerging technologies and future workforce needs, while educators can discuss enrollment trends, program capacity and barriers to expanding programs.

“If I say enrollment is low in a particular program and someone across the room says they really need those employees, then I know I need to go back and market that program,” she said. “Or maybe I can offer more sections, but I’m limited by faculty. Then the conversation becomes, ‘Do you have someone who qualifies to teach for us part-time?’ Those are the kinds of dialogues this alliance can open.”

From conversations to action

As project manager for the NEW Healthcare Alliance, Sarah Hutchinson said it is her job to turn those ideas into tangible initiatives.

Hutchinson – a Wisconsin native and former U.S. Marine Corps professional with experience in operations and human resources – said she joined the alliance earlier this year and now oversees much of its day-to-day implementation.

This, she said, includes coordinating three active committees focused on talent attraction, development and retention; clinical services and engagement; and healthcare career exploration and K-12 pathways.

Hutchinson said each committee brings together representatives from healthcare organizations, education, nonprofits and business.

“The cross-functional communication – people from various backgrounds – helps people ask the right questions, and then the groupthink starts,” she said.

Hutchinson said committee members include healthcare professionals, workforce development leaders, educators, nonprofit representatives and business leaders who bring different perspectives to the same challenge.

Meeting monthly, Hutchinson said committees are shifting from mere discussion to identifying specific workforce gaps and opportunities.

This ongoing gap analysis, she said, includes documenting challenges, identifying barriers and assessing whether gaps exist in education pathways, workforce supports or communication efforts.

Competitors collaborating

One of the alliance’s most notable characteristics, Deschane said, is its ability to bring together organizations that frequently compete for the same workforce.

The alliance, she said, provides a central forum for organizations to exchange ideas, share best practices and resources and learn from one another.

“If we’re scaling together, it allows for the health systems to have a central place to do that,” she said.

Deschane said the alliance also helps identify disconnects between employers and educational institutions.

From the employer perspective, she said organizations may be unaware of available programs or lack the capacity to implement them.

From the education side, Deschane said institutions may not fully understand current workforce needs.

“In creating paths forward, we’re creating options they can take back, feel out and see how they fit in the gaps they’re trying to fill,” she said.

Hughes said she has seen the value of regional collaboration before through her involvement with another alliance that brought healthcare providers and educational institutions together before ultimately dissolving.

Over time, she said the partnership helped reduce competition and strengthen relationships among participating organizations.

Hughes said members worked to standardize clinical-placement requirements, vaccination documentation and other processes that often varied from one organization to another.

“We all realized we’re looking at the same goal in the end,” she said. “It strengthened the collegiality and reduced the competitiveness.”

Hughes said the alliance also fostered relationships that extended well beyond formal meetings.

“I grew a lot of professional collaborative relationships beyond the work of the alliance,” she said. “You see the same people in meetings for other things and know you can partner on whatever.”

Hutchinson said the meetings also regularly expose members to innovative approaches being used elsewhere.

One recent example, she said, involved a discussion led by a Goodwill representative about employee support programs focused on financial wellness and overall well-being.

Another discussion, Hutchinson said, focused on helping employees transition into new careers within the same organization.

For example, she said an employee working in a maintenance role might receive support to pursue a nursing career while remaining employed.

“That’s the beauty of the adaptability of organizations to do that for their employees,” she said. “That’s taking care of your people, and your people are your greatest asset.”

Why retention matters as much as recruitment

Though attracting new workers receives considerable attention, Hughes said alliance leaders repeatedly return to retention as one of the region’s most important workforce challenges.

Workforce shortages, she said, remain particularly acute in nursing and nursing assistant positions, though demand extends well beyond those occupations.

“Recognize that the population overall is aging, and we’re all going to need healthcare services at some point,” she said. “Our goal as educational institutions is to fill that gap.”

Hughes said many healthcare programs face a difficult balancing act between student demand and available training capacity.

“We have very long waitlists for respiratory therapy and diagnostic medical sonography, and there is a lot of interest in those programs,” she said. “But, because of accreditation requirements, clinical placements and faculty availability, we can only take so many students at a time. If we had more clinical sites and more faculty, we could take more students.”

Deschane said the alliance’s approach focuses on retaining talent within the region, regardless of which health system ultimately employs an individual.

That perspective, she said, has become a key point of alignment among participating organizations.

“It is a collective problem of, how do we work together to retain talent in our community?” she said. “If we retain them here, we’re all going to be better off.”

Hutchinson – who grew up in a rural community – said for her, that mission carries personal significance.

“If I can make a difference or make strides to make sure that young person in a rural area without access to transportation can learn about and access a healthcare career, it’s a win for me,” she said.

Hutchinson said awareness remains one of the biggest opportunities.

Many healthcare careers, she said, require less time in school than people assume and can provide relatively quick entry into meaningful, family-supporting careers.

“There are so many technicians and other shorter career paths, where you may be in school less than a year and can quickly get into the workforce and make an impact,” she said.

A workforce issue that affects every employer

Though the alliance focuses on health care, Hutchinson said every business has a stake in the outcome.

“Healthcare workforce development is not just about health care,” she said. “It’s all about regional workforce and economic development.”

A healthy workforce, Hutchinson said, supports business productivity and quality of life throughout the region.

If employees struggle to access care for themselves or family members, Hutchinson said, those challenges inevitably affect workplaces as well.

“If our healthcare system can be successful, then that directly impacts employees and a healthy and productive workforce,” she said.

Deschane said the alliance ultimately aims to help New North present a unified message about the healthcare opportunities available throughout the region and the role that plays in quality of life.

“We’re promoting that our region has some of the best quality health care in the state,” she said. “Not only care for people but as workplaces and great culture for people to find their careers.”

As the alliance continues its work, Deschane said leaders believe the long-term benefits will extend far beyond hospitals and clinics.

The effort, she said, is about creating scalable solutions that communities can adapt locally while remaining connected to a larger regional strategy.

Deschane said it is about strengthening talent pipelines, improving access to care and helping employers across Northeast Wisconsin compete for the workforce they need.

Sustaining the alliance beyond its initial grant funding, Hughes said, will be critical to achieving long-term success.

“The biggest takeaway from being involved in the previous alliance is having one key person or entity keeping it all together,” she said. 

Most importantly, Hutchinson said the effort is about recognizing that though organizations may compete for talent, they share a common interest in ensuring that talent chooses to build a career in the New North.

“The collaboration that can benefit everyone is most important,” she said.

Further details on the NEW Healthcare Alliance can be found at thenewnorth.com.