101. Restlessness in the Workforce: Ginger Christ of Modern Healthcare

On this episode of Prognosis Ohio, Dan talks with healthcare reporter and Ohio native Ginger Christ. Ginger is Modern Healthcare’s post-acute care and staffing reporter. Based in Northeast Ohio where she grew up, Christ has most recently covered healthcare and transportation for The Cleveland Plain Dealer. To see the scope of Ginger’s recent reporting, visit her splash page at Modern Health Care. This is Ginger’s second appearance on Prognosis Ohio, and you can listen to her first appearance here.

On the episode, Ginger talks about some of her recent work on issues such as food insecurity among health care workers (link), challenges among and concerns within home healthcare (link), the role of immigrants and refugees in filling staffing shortages in Ohio and around the U.S (link), and travel nursing. Ginger specifically mentions an organization called Encuentro that is working with immigrant populations to ensure that health care workers understand their rights and have a supportive community within which to address problems. Encuentro does wonderful, important work, and you can donate to them here. Dan and Ginger also talk about working with sources and earning trust in a health care industry that is notoriously tight-lipped, but also given the vulnerabilities that many health care workers face.

Though Modern Healthcare is a subscription-only, industry-focused health care outlet, but you can get full access for four weeks for just $1 here. You can follow Ginger on Twitter where you can keep track of the beats she is following, her updates on outdoorsy opportunities and adventures in Northeast Ohio’s cold outdoors, and cats.

Name checks: On the episode we reference a few past episodes, including Dan’s conversation with Malik Perkins of the Mid-Ohio Food Collective, and Brian Alexander, about his highly recommended book, The Hospital.