There is a workforce shortage right now in all areas of the medical industry, and a new Albany startup is working to address the problem.
The medical certification training center has already made a small difference in the Capital Region, and the two founders have big plans for the future of their startup.
LaQuetta Alexander-Ellis and Odaysia Burton-Garland founded the Hearts and Mind Training Center in early 2020. It's since trained more than 100 students in phlebotomy and EKG. The startup is housed in the incubator at the Community Loan Fund of the Capital Region.
Alexander-Ellis had been teaching phlebotomy at SUNY Schenectady through a Health Profession Opportunity Grant from the federal Administration for Children and Families. But that program ended, which she thought left a gap in that type of training.
So she joined forces with Burton-Garland, her cousin by marriage and a nurse at Albany Med who trains new employees there.
The idea is to get people trained and into jobs in a matter of weeks, Burton-Garland said. Other programs that include phlebotomy training could take two years.
"Our goal is trying to get people into the workforce as soon as possible. The people we're serving don't necessarily want to go to school for two years, or they can't afford to go to school for two years — they need to get to working now,” Burton-Garland said.
"If we can get them into the field in a month versus them having to wait two years to get the same, exact certification, I think it definitely helps people."
Someone with phlebotomy training can typically get a job as a lab tech or lab assistant in a hospital or an independent lab. From there, they could get additional training and be promoted.
About a quarter of Hearts and Mind's students so far have obtained phlebotomy jobs. Others may not have applied yet for a job, and some of the students have been nurses who wanted better phlebotomy training, Burton-Garland said.
One of the former students is now a supervisor at St. Peter's Health Partners training other employees.
The long-term goal is for Hearts and Mind to become a state-certified training institution for several types of medical state licenses, like certified nursing assistant, home health care and personal care aide. Being registered through the state Bureau of Proprietary School Supervision would allow the company to accept funding from federal student aid and the New York State Tuition Assistance Program.
"Our own full-fledged training center, instead of just a couple classrooms — that's our goal,” Burton-Garland said.
The biggest barrier right now is funding, she said. It's $10,000 just to apply for BPSS affiliation. And it would be another $5,000 fee for each individual instructor working at the school.
The pair have invested about $40,000 so far in equipment, marketing and consultants. They decided early that they didn't want to take out loans, so they’re looking into grant applications.
"It becomes pretty expensive, so that's why we're starting small, and we're trying to partner with different local community organizations to help us get our enrollment up," Burton-Garland said.
Once they're teaching three classes of 12-15 students per month, they'll be able to fund those applications, she said.
“We want to make sure we can be competitive with the larger schools, like Bryant & Stratton and Mildred Elley. They are big corporations, and we're just two women trying to help out our community.”
