Business Retention and Expansion Study for Collingwood's
Medical/Health Sector

Final Report - July 2008

Workforce Development

Normally this section provides insights into where businesses are located, how they are marketing and selling products, what they view as important for growth and how they identify customer needs.

Historically these types of issues are given limited attention within the traditional Medical/Health sector. Reasons may include the financial and contractual obligations in place with the Province of Ontario (OHIP) and practice guidelines issued by the provincially regulated health colleges. Additionally, this sector provided scant or limited financial data for the same reasons.

Alliances with similar practices are reported as possibly leading to an increase in business in market performance. This is a reasonable conclusion to reach when one considers the traditional referral system is a well-entrenched business practice followed within Medical/Health system.

In considering current locations, for 93% of respondents, Collingwood is their only practice location, with:

• 50% of those reporting owning their practice sites

• 34% being completely satisfied with the location

• 34% somewhat satisfied

The remaining 31% representing the somewhat or very dissatisfied indicate their site is too small, with no room to expand.

In addressing technology and other competitive factors facing practices:

• 95% reported some level of Information Technology (IT)

• 81% use e-mail regularly

• 67% have their own website

• 78% use IT for government reporting

Overall this sector reports being adequately serviced with telecommunication technologies through cell phones, pagers, blackberries and personal communication devices.

Local market share and competition for all the Medical /Health Sector respondents:

• 65% of their patients live within Collingwood, yet only 14% of practice revenue is generated outside the community

• 92% of respondents report an increase in market competition

• 71% sense a market share increase

• 25% hold the status quo

This section provides the factors responsible for the increase and decrease of employees, and the current number of employees and type of employee needs within the Medical/Health sector. As noted by those who responded, more than 700 employees work within this sector and a 50% job growth is projected over the next three years.

Many of the practices have grown given the increased demographics within Collingwood. The workforce for this sector was identified by:

• 81% as very good

• 10% as excellent

Therefore the number of employees in this sector has grown. Staff training opportunities were rated at good for 70% of the respondents, with no significant workforce issues identified within this area by the Medical/Health sector. Lack of training issues is a combination of the high caliber of well trained employee’s hired, specific on-going training typically available at a post secondary level, easily open to employees within this field through different venues including on-line.

• 84% of the practices had less than 10 employees

• 11% had between 10 and 20 employees

• 5% had more than 20 employees




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