2025 Legislative Priorities

• Data/Surveys/ Licensure  
  We need to refine the data further to provide more information on the current workforce and their state-wide distribution as compared to statewide population distribution and information of disease incidence to inform current and future workforce needs,
• Clinical Training / Preceptors/ Enhancing Healthcare Workforce Pipelines
  We must work out financing and partnerships between hospitals, educational institutions, high schools, and middle schools to create healthcare career pipelines and enhance clinical training opportunities.  We also need mechanisms to grow the next generation of healthcare workforce educators and fill the ever-expanding demand made by the retirement of healthcare workforce educators,
• Healthcare professional shortages
  We must solve shortages of physicians, dentists,  dental hygienists, nurses, clinical and behavioral health specialists, etc.  How do we grow our own in the state and recruit and retain the workforce needed in Delaware?
• Long-term Care
  We need to grow all levels of healthcare professionals to serve in much-needed areas.  We need to create career ladders for individuals so they can enter at all different levels, achieve credit for their work in the field, and continue to advance in their positions in healthcare,
• Delivering Care to Rural and Underserved populations
  We must enhance geographic distribution across the state, expand telehealth options, etc.  We need to establish more clinics in underserved areas that can then be used to recruit healthcare professionals to establish practices in these areas,
• Community Health Workers
  We need to codify CHWs into the landscape of healthcare providers who can be reimbursed in Delaware.

The Health Workforce Subcommittee of the Delaware Health Care Commission is populated with experts from a wide range of medical and educational backgrounds. It is chaired by Kathy Matt, PhD (DHCC board member, former Dean of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Delaware, and Chair of the Delaware Institute for Medical Education and Research) and Nichole Moxley (Chief, Office of Healthcare Provider Resources and Director, State Office of Rural Health).

The Health Workforce Subcommittee is the advisory board for Delaware Health Force and also serves as the advocacy and policy advisory body for the DHCC. Please contact us with your ideas, potential partnerships, and challenges via our contact us page and we’ll work to get you in front of the Health Workforce Subcommittee during a future meeting.

Committee members include:

Kathy Matt, PhD – Co-chair, Chair Delaware Institute for Medical Education and Research
Rick Geisenberger – Co-chair, Secretary of Finance, Delaware
Tim Gibbs, MPH – Delaware Health Force Director

Nicholas Conte, DMD, MBA, Division of Public Health
Brian Frazee, MMP, Delaware Healthcare Association
Cheryl Heiks, BA, Delaware Healthcare Facilities Association
Elisabeth Massa , MA, Delaware Health Care Commission
Nichole Moxley, BS, DHSS Office of Healthcare Provider Resources
Maggie Norris-Bent, MPA, Westside Family Healthcare
Chris Otto, MSN, RN, CCRN, Delaware Nurses Association
Mike Quaranta, MS, MPP, Delaware State Chamber of Commerce
Gwendolyn Scott-Jones, PsyD, Delaware State University
Shauna Slaughter, MA, Division of Professional Regulation
Mark Thompson, MHSA, Medical Society of Delaware
Avani Virani, MD, Highmark