Health Workforce Research e-Library

This study examines measures of socioeconomic well-being in relation to job education requirements for individuals working in healthcare.

In this study, we explored the career transitions among individuals in select entry-level allied health occupations to determine whether they stayed in healthcare and/or moved up in occupational level over time, and the individual characteristics associated with different career pathways.

This study compared national estimates of the supply and characteristics of nine types of allied health workers drawn from four publicly available national data sources: the American Community Survey (ACS), the Current Population Survey (CPS), the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES), and the National Provider Identifier (NPI) Registry. The nine occupations (or occupation groups) examined were occupational therapists, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, speech-language pathologists, clinical laboratory technologists/technicians, dental hygienists, diagnostic related technologists/technicians, medical assistants and social workers.

This study produced national estimates of the supply and characteristics of nine specific types of allied health workers, drawn from four publicly available national data sources. The resulting report compares the findings and describes uses and limitations of these national data sources for health workforce planning.

The report Leveraging Data to Monitor the Allied Health Workforce: National Supply Estimates Using Different Data Sources (the background report for this Data Snapshot) compared national estimates of the supply and characteristics of nine allied health occupations using four national data sources: the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS), both data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Provider Identifier (NPI) Registry from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ National Plan and Provider Enumeration System. Using the most recent comparable data available from these sources, this Data Snapshot summarizes the national supply size and demographic, educational attainment, and employment information for respiratory therapists.

The report Leveraging Data to Monitor the Allied Health Workforce: National Supply Estimates Using Different Data Sources (the background report for this Data Snapshot) compared national estimates of the supply and characteristics of nine allied health occupations using four national data sources: the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS), both data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Provider Identifier (NPI) Registry from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ National Plan and Provider Enumeration System. Using the most recent comparable data available from these sources, this Data Snapshot summarizes the national supply size and demographic, educational attainment, and employment information for dental hygienists.

The report Leveraging Data to Monitor the Allied Health Workforce: National Supply Estimates Using Different Data Sources (the background report for this Data Snapshot) compared national estimates of the supply and characteristics of nine allied health occupations using four national data sources: the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS), both data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Provider Identifier (NPI) Registry from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ National Plan and Provider Enumeration System. Using the most recent comparable data available from these sources, this Data Snapshot summarizes the national supply size and demographic, educational attainment, and employment information for clinical laboratory technologists and technicians.

The report Leveraging Data to Monitor the Allied Health Workforce: National Supply Estimates Using Different Data Sources (the background report for this Data Snapshot) compared national estimates of the supply and characteristics of nine allied health occupations using four national data sources: the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS), both data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Provider Identifier (NPI) Registry from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ National Plan and Provider Enumeration System. Using the most recent comparable data available from these sources, this Data Snapshot summarizes the national supply size and demographic, educational attainment, and employment information for speech language pathologists.

The report Leveraging Data to Monitor the Allied Health Workforce: National Supply Estimates Using Different Data Sources (the background report for this Data Snapshot) compared national estimates of the supply and characteristics of nine allied health occupations using four national data sources: the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS), both data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Provider Identifier (NPI) Registry from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ National Plan and Provider Enumeration System. Using the most recent comparable data available from these sources, this Data Snapshot summarizes the national supply size and demographic, educational attainment, and employment information for social workers.

The report Leveraging Data to Monitor the Allied Health Workforce: National Supply Estimates Using Different Data Sources (the background report for this Data Snapshot) compared national estimates of the supply and characteristics of nine allied health occupations using four national data sources: the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS), both data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Provider Identifier (NPI) Registry from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ National Plan and Provider Enumeration System. Using the most recent comparable data available from these sources, this Data Snapshot summarizes the national supply size and demographic, educational attainment, and employment information for physical therapists.

The report Leveraging Data to Monitor the Allied Health Workforce: National Supply Estimates Using Different Data Sources (the background report for this Data Snapshot) compared national estimates of the supply and characteristics of nine allied health occupations using four national data sources: the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS), both data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Provider Identifier (NPI) Registry from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ National Plan and Provider Enumeration System. Using the most recent comparable data available from these sources, this Data Snapshot summarizes the national supply size and demographic, educational attainment, and employment information for occupational therapists.

The report Leveraging Data to Monitor the Allied Health Workforce: National Supply Estimates Using Different Data Sources (the background report for this Data Snapshot) compared national estimates of the supply and characteristics of nine allied health occupations using four national data sources: the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS), both data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Provider Identifier (NPI) Registry from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ National Plan and Provider Enumeration System. Using the most recent comparable data available from these sources, this Data Snapshot summarizes the national supply size and demographic, educational attainment, and employment information for medical assistants.

The report Leveraging Data to Monitor the Allied Health Workforce: National Supply Estimates Using Different Data Sources (the background report for this Data Snapshot) compared national estimates of the supply and characteristics of nine allied health occupations using four national data sources: the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS), both data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Provider Identifier (NPI) Registry from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ National Plan and Provider Enumeration System. Using the most recent comparable data available from these sources, this Data Snapshot summarizes the national supply size and demographic, educational attainment, and employment information for diagnostic related technologists and technicians.

This presentation discusses low skilled low wage workers in health care.

This poster focuses on low-skilled, low-wage workers in health care.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that many veterans, including those with healthcare experience, have difficulties entering civilian healthcare occupations. This brief investigates veterans’ barriers to smooth career transitions into healthcare careers, with a focus on allied health occupations. In addition, it examines the types of programs and policies designed to assist veterans to overcome barriers in their pursuit of healthcare careers.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that many veterans, including those with healthcare experience, have difficulties entering civilian healthcare occupations. This report investigates veterans’ barriers to smooth career transitions into healthcare careers, with a focus on allied health occupations. In addition, it examines the types of programs and policies designed to assist veterans to overcome barriers in their pursuit of healthcare careers.

This brief identifies the characteristics of veterans entering healthcare occupations, with a focus on allied health professions, and identifies occupations most commonly taken on by veterans.

This report identifies the characteristics of veterans entering healthcare occupations, with a focus on allied health professions, and identifies occupations most commonly taken on by veterans.

This poster focuses on a descriptive study identifying barriers that veterans face as they pursue civilian careers, highlighting barriers specific to healthcare.

Community health centers (CHCs) represent an important and unique component of America's health care system. Because of their mission of comprehensive and community-oriented primary care, CHCs typically provide a broader array of services than most other American medical practice settings. This report describes the changes in the workforce of community health centers from 2007 to 2013.

The use of various forms of Clinical Support Personnel (CSP), who perform healthcare tasks under the supervision of registered nurses and other licensed healthcare providers has been used as a primary strategy for managing professional shortages (Huston, 1996, Zimmerman, 2000). The purpose of this analysis is to better understand how hospitals are using CSP, and to explore changes that may have occurred since the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Many areas of the US have an inadequate supply of primary care physicians and the insufficiency is expected to increase. To address these concerns, as well as to improve the quality of the care delivered, health policy experts have recommended that medical practices transform and embrace “team-based” care, encouraging a broader range of medical staff working together. This article examines different medical staffing patterns in community health centers, the impact of staffing on productivity, staff roles, and the factors affecting staffing patterns.

In the United States, changing demographics, rising costs, and the impact of new regulations and payment models arising from the Affordable Care Act have placed unprecedented pressures on healthcare providers to increase access to care, improve quality and to control costs. To meet these challenges, some providers are forming accountable care organizations (ACOs) while others are pursuing medical homes or other novel payment and care delivery models. This study developed a new evidence-based health workforce innovation research framework and applied the model to compare health workforce innovations at community health centers and other ambulatory care settings.

This project had two goals: 1) To develop a framework that can be used to describe the drivers/motivators, mechanisms and outcome measures of health workforce innovation so they can be used to guide future research in this area. This framework can help to identify patterns in emergent workforce arrangements, and can help researchers and planners to formulate hypotheses and study the implications of health workforce innovations in different contexts. 2) To use the framework to compare and contrast health workforce innovations in community health centers and other ambulatory care settings. This information can help HRSA and other policymakers to understand the implications of health workforce changes for planning, education, and labor market projections, both in CHCs and in ambulatory care more generally.

As the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) advances, many health systems are taking bold measures to reorganize how they deliver care. In order to do so, they are realizing they must make major changes in how their healthcare workforces are organized. The authors focused on two very different health systems, Kaiser Permanente and Montefiore Health System, to better understand how they are adapting to and planning for workforce changes in the post-ACA environment. The study asked not only how changes in healthcare delivery are altering the national demand for health workers, but also how individual organizations are making choices about ways to reconfigure their workforce in ways that advance both workers’ wellbeing and the value of their services.

Telehealth has long been viewed as an important pathway for increasing access to care for underserved populations, while providing high quality care at low cost. The spread of telehealth in the United States, however, has been hampered by a range of reimbursement, equipment costs, and licensure barriers. In this study we examine the extent to which telehealth is being used in settings that are among the locations most in need: the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) approved grantee sites.

The purpose of this report is to better understand the varied landscape, to offer categories of analysis that may help inform policy, management, and research, to explore what CHW‐health system integration looks like today, to reflect on the range of competencies that may be relevant to different CHW programs, and to explore Medicaid financing opportunities for the CHW workforce.

Community health centers (CHCs) have long operated with challenges in staffing recruitment and retention. Although electronic health records (EHRs) are slow to proliferate across primary care settings, especially in resource poor areas, due to workforce barriers, CHCs have been leaders in the adoption of EHRs among primary care providers. This study investigates how the adoption of EHRs has changed staffing mix of CHCs in ways that further quality improvements.

Community health centers (CHCs) represent an important and unique component of America's health care system. Because of their mission of comprehensive and community-oriented primary care, CHCs typically provide a broader array of services than most other American medical practice settings. This brief describes the changes in the workforce of community health centers from 2007 to 2013.

Effective health workforce planning requires a basic understanding about the supply and demand for health workers. This webinar presents strategies used in three states—Florida, New York, and California—to monitor demand for health workers using employer surveys.

Learn about the Minimum Data Set (MDS) questions on demographics, education, and practice and how to effectively use MDS data to support health workforce planning efforts.

HRSA recently released a report, The Future of the Nursing Workforce: National and State-level Projections, 2012-2025, based on updated nursing supply and demand models using microsimulation to forecast workforce adequacy. This webinar describes HRSA’s new models and discusses their findings and implications.

The NPI is an administrative tool of the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) used for processing claims and transferring health care information. The NPI can also be useful in studies of the health workforce. In this webinar, researchers at the University of Washington WWAMI Center for Health Workforce Studies and Rural Health Research Center share their experiences using NPI data for studies of the nation’s advanced practice nurse and physician workforces. They describe the strengths, weaknesses, and their remaining questions about using NPI data.

Dr. Patricia Moulton describes the steps in developing an effective health workforce research communication plan including examples of different types of dissemination products and strategies for increasing impact.

Many of HRSA’s current Funding Opportunity Announcements are asking applicants to use quality improvement techniques to ensure grant activities achieve their intended purposes as well as to promote continuous assessment and improvement of activities over the grant period. It is important for HRSA Project Officers and staff to be familiar with RCQI and to understand how core components of this model relate to grantee efforts to achieve program goals. This webinar reviews key elements of RCQI, provides examples of how these elements might be applied by HRSA grantees to improve program performance, and considers impacts of RCQI on Program Officers’ work with grantees.

This webinar presents findings from a recent study conducted by the Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care at the University of California, San Francisco, on the job transitions of long-term care workers. The study used the Current Population Survey to examine from which jobs and settings workers entered and exited long-term care. Study findings identify the demographic, socioeconomic, and health factors associated with these transitions.

Many of HRSA’s current Funding Opportunity Announcements are asking applicants to use quality improvement techniques to ensure grant activities achieve their intended purposes as well as to promote continuous assessment and improvement of activities over the grant period. It is important for HRSA grantees to be familiar with RCQI and to understand how core components of this model relate to grantee efforts to achieve program goals. This webinar reviews key elements of RCQI and provides examples of how these elements might be applied by HRSA grantees to improve program performance.

As the impacts of health reform are felt across the country, states are recognizing the importance of having timely, objective, and comprehensive data on their health workforce to inform decision-making. A growing number of states are developing or planning to develop health workforce monitoring systems to use for health workforce planning. In order to learn more about this, HWTAC is conducting a survey of states on their health workforce data collection and analysis efforts. This presentation describes findings from this survey and discusses some of the issues and challenges states face in developing and maintaining health workforce data collection systems.

The Center for Health Workforce Studies in collaboration with the New York State Department of Health developed a statewide set of Medicaid-based rational service areas (Medicaid RSAs), based on commuting patterns of Medicaid patients from their place of residence to their provider. Medicaid RSAs were assessed using a deprivation score based on demographic and health care indicators to identify those RSAs with the highest need. This webinar describes the approach used to develop and assess Medicaid RSAs.

This presentation focuses on the Integration of Oral Health with Primary Care Services and the Use of Innovative Oral Health Workforce in Federally Qualified Health Centers.

This mixed method study examines the models of delivery of dental care in LTC facilities under varying policy conditions in four U.S. states – California, Florida, Minnesota, and North Carolina.

The objective of this research is to understand the impact of Medicaid dental benefits and availability of providers on utilization of dental services. The present report summarizes the findings of an analysis of Medicaid dental claims over a 2-year period in Oklahoma, where the Medicaid program provides only a limited emergency dental benefit for eligible adults.

The purpose of the study was to describe inclusion of didactic and clinical instruction in oral health in physician assistant (PA) education programs in 2014. A previous study in 2008 found that PA education program directors generally understood the importance of teaching about the linkage of oral health with systemic health, yet, few programs had actually integrated oral health instruction into the PA curriculum. This study was undertaken to ascertain the number of PA programs teaching oral health topics and to evaluate the content of instruction and implementation strategies.

The Oral Health Workforce Center (OHWRC) at the Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS), University at Albany School of Public Health conducted a study of the dental assistant workforce to catalogue the variation in regulation of dental assistants by state, to identify sources of data about the characteristics of dental assistants in the United States, and to examine literature describing the contributions of dental assistants to patient care with special emphasis on how expanded roles for dental assistants are affecting both access to oral health services and population oral health outcomes.

Between February and July 2015 researchers at the Oral Health Workforce Research Center (OHWRC) completed case studies at 8 FQHCs headquartered or operating satellite clinics in 9 states. This report explores the barriers and facilitators to integration of oral health services with primary health care delivery in federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) across the United States. It also discusses employment by FQHCs of a variety of novel oral health workforce to enable better access to oral health services in their delivery systems.

Dental assistants (DAs) are important members of the oral health workforce team and perform a variety of clinical and administrative tasks. However, requirements for entry into the workforce, allowable tasks, and supervision vary by state. This report examines the dental assistant workforce to better understand roles, functions, and contributions to improving population oral health.

This case study explores Pennsylvania’s development and implementation of a peer provider workforce in mental health (MH) and substance use disorders (SUD).

This summary report examines factors associated with the successful integration of peer providers into behavioral health care systems, drawing from a review of the literature and in-depth case studies conducted in four states with strong peer provider workforces. Please follow the link for the individual state reports for Arizona, Georgia, Texas, and Pennsylvania, and follow this link for our landscape analysis of the use of peer providers in the MH and SUD fields.

This report examines factors associated with the successful integration of peer providers into behavioral health care systems, drawing from a summary of the literature and in-depth case studies conducted in four states with strong peer provider workforces.