Musculoskeletal conditions are incredibly common, affecting more than half of adults in the United States. Physical therapy (PT) is recommended as an essential component in the treatment of these conditions. However, many primary care physicians (PCPs), who are the first point of contact for those patients seeking treatment for musculoskeletal conditions, are often encouraged to…
Social workers are now doing more of their work in integrated health settings that require them to perform a variety of different roles and skills. As these settings are often more complex, the roles that social workers perform in them is not well understood. This article describes a study which utilized an online survey of…
As the aging population increases, the demand for long-term care (LTC) is also expected to increase substantially. The patients in need of LTC are also expected to become more racially diverse over time. As patients tend to prefer care providers who share their cultural and racial background, it will be increasingly important to understand the…
The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) provides assistance to provider organizations in health professional shortage areas (HPSAs) in the form of loan repayments to providers who agree to work at eligible sites. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) invested $234 million in the NHSC, allowing them to provide support to over 14,000 providers. This report describes…
Reforms to address the oral health care needs of vulnerable populations in long-term care (LTC) settings should start with defining a clearer standard of oral care required for this population. This will allow best practices in policy, practice, and accountability to be structured around care that improves patients’ oral health. This article identifies and classifies…
There are insufficient numbers of practicing geriatricians to meet the current demand for their services, and the shortage is projected to worsen in the coming decades as the number of older Americans rapidly increases. Understanding how to best leverage geriatricians as members of an overall care team is critical. This report is the second component…
Legislators in each state construct policies to define legal scope of practice (SOP) for dental hygienists in their state. These policies create variation in the tasks Dental Hygienists (DH) in different states are legally allowed to perform, which ultimately impacts access to oral healthcare services. The Oral Health Workforce Research Center developed an infographic that…
More social workers in primary care clinics now work as part of integrated behavioral healthcare (IBH) teams. Understanding how many of these social workers are co-located with primary care physicians is important to ensure that planning and training align with current models of care. This article described a review of the data on social worker…
Information on the supply of workers in a local job market is important when determining whether there are qualified workers to fill health care jobs in demand. The American Community Survey (ACS), a publicly available annual survey of over 3.5 million households conducted by the US Census Bureau, has been a regular source of information…
Hospitals have increasingly relied on nurse assistants to support nurses in the provision of patient care, yet knowledge about their contributions to the patient experience in US hospitals is limited. Although registered nurses are more impactful, nurse assistants are the more underdeployed staffing category. Given their lower labor costs, further employment of nurse assistants may…
