Senate Healthcare Committee adopts rules, hears statewide health-care workforce assessment

The Oregon Senate Committee on Healthcare on Jan. 21 adopted its committee rules for the 2025 session and held an informational meeting focused on statewide health-care workforce needs, forecasting job growth and outlining training and retention strategies.

Committee Chair Senator Deb Patterson opened the session at 3 p.m., confirmed a quorum and presided over the organizational action to adopt the committee rules dated Jan. 21, 2025. Vice Chair Senator Hayden moved to adopt the rules; after a roll-call by the clerk the chair declared the motion passed.

The committee then heard a multi-panel informational on health-care workforce supply and demand. Economists from the Oregon Employment Department, Gail Kremenauer and Jason Payton, told the committee that overall job growth in Oregon was positive but slow between 2023 and 2024, and that growth was highly concentrated in private health care and social assistance. Kremenauer said private health care and social assistance accounted for a disproportionate share of recent openings and vacancies. Payton described long-term projections showing health care and social assistance growing faster than the statewide average: the Employment Department forecast expects the sector to grow about 13% between 2023 and 2033 and to add the largest number of new jobs of any sector over that decade. The…