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DPH HR says vacancies have fallen sharply but medical director and behavioral clinician gaps remain
Summary
Human Resources told the commission its data-driven hiring work cut DPH vacancies and turnover, but union speakers and commissioners flagged persistent physician and behavioral-health clinician shortages and asked for continued monitoring and targeted recruitment.
San Francisco Department of Public Health human-resources leaders told the Health Commission on Sept. 17 that the department has made measurable progress reducing vacancies and improving retention, while acknowledging ongoing gaps for physicians and behavioral-health clinicians.
Chief Human Resources Officer Luanna Kim presented FY23–24 results, saying DPH has reduced overall vacancies by 48%, lowered turnover by 16% and increased retention by 6%. She said the department’s time from application to hire is about 134 days and that DPH has moved to a dashboard-driven approach to track vacancies and hiring by job class. "We anchored our priorities on the feedback from our employees," Kim said, describing objective key results that support a departmental goal to be "fully staffed DPH."
Kim described classification changes and recruitment partnerships — including renaming a CNA job class, removing a six-month experience requirement, and partnering with HBCU Connect to diversify applicant pools. She also described an expanded experience-and-culture program, new leadership development offerings, a triage hotline for workers’ comp and an improved EEO intake process (no backlog).
Union speakers at public comment urged sustained focus on medical-director vacancies. Dr. Roger Wu, a DPH physician and union representative, said primary-care medical-director vacancies climbed from around 10% in 2017 to as high as 70% during the pandemic and warned of operational risk when clinical leadership positions are unfilled. "If 7 out of 10 of you were missing… it's pretty crippling," Wu said, urging a joint labor-management push to clear bureaucratic obstacles to hiring.
Commissioners asked for more granular leave and coverage reporting and for continued regular reporting on physician recruitment and retention. Kim and HR colleagues said they would provide deeper dives and targeted metrics in future briefings, including by job class and by intervention so commissioners can track progress.
Why it matters: The HR update signals strong progress on large, department-wide metrics but underscores that filling specialized physician roles and behavioral-health clinician positions will require different, targeted strategies and continued commission attention.
What’s next: DPH HR will report back with more detailed, job-class-level trends and proposals to accelerate recruitment and retention for physicians and behavioral-health clinicians.
