Faced with hundreds of vacant nurse positions and dozens of unstaffed hospital beds, executives at Henry Ford Health system dusted off an old strategy to offset the staffing shortage: international recruitment.

The system, which operates five hospitals across Michigan, planned to bring in 500 nurses from the Philippines—something it did in the 1990s and 2000s—under a multiyear plan, President and CEO Bob Riney announced in September 2021.

Almost 18 months later, however, those nurses have yet to land in Michigan. And Eric Wallis, the SVP and chief nursing officer at Henry Ford Health, told Healthcare Brew that the system expects them to start arriving this summer.

“The immigration process is slow,” he said.

It’s a scene that’s playing out at hospitals across the country. More health systems have taken their recruitment efforts abroad and started relying on US travel nurses to fill staffing shortages exacerbated by the pandemic.

And with pandemic-related stalls to the already lengthy US immigration and visa approval processes, many hospital administrators don’t see international recruitment as a quick fix to healthcare staffing challenges. The delays even prompted the American Hospital Association to urge Congress to expedite “visas for foreign-trained nurses.”

CGFNS International reported that VisaScreen, the nonprofit’s visa credentials assessment service for health professionals looking to work in the US, saw a record 17,354 applications from 116 countries in 2022—up 44% increase from 2021 and 109% from 2018.

The bulk of VisaScreen applicants attended school in the Philippines (58%), followed by those who were trained in Canada (15%) and the US (7%).

Depending on labor needs, there are a few immigration pathways for those foreign-born workers. Applicants from the Philippines usually go through the direct green card sponsorship process, also known as the Schedule A permanent residence process, which can take at least a year.

Keep reading here.—SY, KW

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Shannon at [email protected]. For completely confidential conversations, ask Shannon for her number on Signal.

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Kristine at [email protected]. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristine for her number on Signal.

Thanks to increasing awareness of the role sexual health plays in overall well-being, the sexual wellness industry is expected to grow to $81.4 billion by 2028, up from $51.9 billion in 2021, according to a September 2022 report from market research firm The Insight Partners.

As the industry becomes less stigmatized, venture capitalists are more willing to invest in sexual wellness companies, Monica Cepak, chief marketing officer at sexual telehealth provider Wisp, told Healthcare Brew.

“There is an appetite from the investment community to support women founders and businesses that are innovating in this space because it’s only going to continue to grow in terms of demand, and I think investors are starting to realize that,” said Cepak.

What is sexual wellness? The Insight Partners report states that “sexual wellness is determined by the combination of a physical condition, mental state, and social well-being that is related to sexuality.”

Sexual wellness depends on a number of factors, such as access to sexual healthcare and “good-quality information about sex and sexuality,” according to the World Health Organization.

Market breakdown: Within the pharmaceutical segment of the sexual wellness industry, there are capsules, tablets, oral liquids, and sprays to treat issues like vaginal dryness and decreased libido. Capsules held the largest market share of the segment in 2021 and are projected to see the most growth through 2028.

The non-pharmaceutical segment consists of sex toys, condoms, intrauterine devices, contraceptive implants, and more. The sex toy segment has the largest market share and is expected to see the most growth over the next five years.

Keep reading here.—MA

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Maia at [email protected]. For completely confidential conversations, ask Maia for her number on Signal.

On Fridays, we schedule our rounds with Healthcare Brew readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

This week’s Making Rounds spotlights Dawn Godbolt, the director of health equity at Maven Clinic, a virtual clinic and app focused on women’s and family health. Godbolt discussed her work to ensure that health equity is more than “just a buzzword” and how Maven is targeting disparities in healthcare.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How did you get involved in health equity, and why is this so important to you?

I am the granddaughter of sharecroppers from the American South. I hold a PhD in sociology, but sharing about my grandparents helps to contextualize my own understanding of inequality in our society. I can tell you stories of family members who have either passed or come close to passing away due to inequitable access to healthcare. This is something that was always sort of just in my periphery as I grew up.

I started my career in direct services, working with people experiencing homelessness. And this is where I could really understand how policy and systems come together to actually recreate inequity. I am from the Washington, DC, area, so I’m very federal government-focused, very policy-focused. But when I was in graduate school is when I really learned about the maternal health and infant health crises that our country is facing.

How would you describe your specific job to someone who doesn’t work in healthcare?

My mission and my goal is to improve the equitable delivery of care by identifying opportunities that really improve care at Maven Clinic: our products, our content, our care model—the entire company—our internal strategies for growth and scaling.

Keep reading here.—SY

Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: The US market for hard seltzers and canned cocktails is valued at about $10 billion—at a time when alcohol-related deaths “reach record highs.” (the New York Times)

Quote: “The staggering increase in methamphetamine-related deaths in the United States is largely now driven by the co-involvement of street opioids.”—Rachel Hoopsick, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and lead researcher on a 20-year study (US News and World Report)

Read: A former New York City ER nurse has a lot to say about the nursing profession, but her advocacy has made it difficult for her to get hired during the national nursing shortage. (the Washington Post)

It’s personal: LetsGetChecked is changing the way people approach their health. Their solution, myPGx, is making personalized care a reality through at-home pharmacogenomic testing. We spoke with the experts for our latest article.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

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