LILLINGTON - Health insurance executives met with community leaders in Harnett County on Friday, 2月. 4, to analyze challenges facing the local workforce and consider how healthcare providers might help prepare people for high-skilled, 高需求的工作可以改善整个社区.

首席执行官博士. Tunde Sotunde and other executives from Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina visited the 中央卡罗莱纳社区学院 Harnett Main Campus in Lillington as part of its Extra Miles Tour, an ongoing initiative featuring visits in every county statewide to understand diversity across North Carolina, celebrate local efforts making a positive impact and find ways to improve residents' health and well-being.

"The Extra Miles Tour is the perfect opportunity for Blue Cross NC leadership to listen and learn from our members and the communities we are fortunate to serve," Dr. Sotunde在公司网站上说. "We know that the most powerful way to connect with others is to listen, and we are building relationships that will help us better serve our state."

他们在利灵顿停留了两个小时, the Blue Cross Blue Shield executives sat in on a panel discussion among leaders from across the community. 小组成员包括科里·赫斯, President and CEO of Harnett Health; Angie Stewart, Economic Developer for Harnett County; Pat Godwin Jr., Corporate President of The Godwin Group; Dr. Lisa Chapman, President of 中央卡罗莱纳社区学院; Dr. Aaron Fleming, Superintendent of Harnett County Schools; and State Sen. 吉姆Burgin. The panel discussion was moderated by 国家哈恩, Director of Growth for EducationNC.

Most of the discussion centered on how to recruit and maintain a well-skilled workforce. 这只是公司面临的一个例子, 赫斯说，哈内特医疗的人员流动率非常高, 大约50%, 公司不得不依靠合同工, 他认为这是不可持续的.

从那时起, 讨论转向了可能的解决方案, including everything from new highways to provide a free flow of workers from populated areas like Raleigh into more rural communities in Harnett County to mental health services for students and employees to new and creative ways to train students for in-demand careers and build a talent pipeline based on growing industries in each area.

Godwin described how difficult it has been to find skilled workers -- and how that problem has limited his company's ability to manufacture more dump truck bodies and other trucking equipment. He recalled a recent trade show where several customers described plans to expand and asked if he could provide much more product over the next year or more. “老实说, 在我们已经拥有的少数几个客户之间, I could have doubled the size of my operations based on projections,他说. The problem is that he can't find enough skilled workers to make it happen.

Many of the ideas focused on developing creative partnerships -- the idea of companies, 组织和政府共同努力, 每个人都有自己的专长. And being willing to change the approach as the economic environment inevitably shifts.

小组讨论快结束了, the Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO said that some of the ideas discussed in Lillington reinforced what he was hearing on the statewide tour. 特别是，三个主题似乎正在出现. 需要更多的心理健康服务. The central role community colleges will have in solving many of the challenges. And the serious difficulty people have achieving success when they can't find adequate transportation, 食物或什么?. Sotunde将其描述为“健康的社会驱动力”."

在小组讨论开始之前, Blue Cross Blue Shield executives got a firsthand look at 推荐正规买球平台's Laser and Photonics program, one of those unique initiatives that has been providing local students with lucrative employment at companies from the Research Triangle to the world-renowned Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Laser and Photonics Lead Instructor Gary Beasley and several of his students guided the group through some of the labs, demonstrating lasers and describing how technology taught at the college is used in everything from laser engraving to cutting-edge medical research. 在一个房间里, 标记为“氩氪实验室”," Beasley said that only four or five community colleges nationwide have high-energy laser labs like the 推荐正规买球平台 program, 学生在哪里获得实践校准/测试培训.

Executives passed around examples of intricate laser engraving and discussed how laser technology could be used to improve medical diagnosis and treatment. 这是一种似乎适合“额外里程之旅”的项目. It was an opportunity to celebrate local efforts making a positive impact and to showcase an innovative project that is being used to improve health and well being.