DPH reports staffing gains; union leaders and commissioners press mayor's office to unfreeze physician positions

The Department of Public Health provided an update on human-resources work on May 5, reporting sustained reductions in vacancy and turnover rates and targeted recruitment activity that has begun to deliver new hires, while acknowledging remaining gaps for certain clinician categories.

Chief Human Resources Officer Louanna Kim told commissioners the department has centralized onboarding, shortened some requisition timelines by about 30%, and increased hiring velocity. Kim cited substantive progress for nurses (vacancy rate under 5%, down from 14% in 2021) and said behavioral-health clinician vacancies have improved but remain a fragile pipeline.

Recruiting events and timelines Erica Thorson, director of staffing, described a focused hiring strategy for behavioral-health clinicians. DPH invited candidates who had already applied to a pair of interview days: more than 100 candidates heard short presentations from hiring managers; 34 candidates attended the two interview days and 30 advanced through the selection process. Thorson said many candidates who were interviewed are being placed with start dates in the coming weeks; separate outreach events continued the next day to draw additional candidates.

Metrics and process Scott DeWolf (Recruitment, Assessment and Selection) described expanded outreach beyond the Bay Area,…