Integrated care has become increasingly common in recent years and has helped provide patients with care for a wide variety of health needs. These integrated approaches tend to be more complex and require new ways of collecting data to measure their effectiveness. Electronic health records (EHR) present a potential solution. This article describes the development…
As quality incentives are further integrated into payment systems, community health centers (CHCs) will need to optimize their workforce configuration to improve quality. Given the relative efficiency of advanced practice clinicians in producing quality, further hiring of these professionals is a cost‐effective investment for CHCs. This article explores optimal workforce configurations in the production of…
There is demonstrated evidence that medications used for treating opioid use disorder (MOUD)—such as buprenorphine, methadone, and extended-release naltrexone—are effective at treating opioid use disorder (OUD) and reducing associated harms. However, these medications are heavily underutilized, largely due to the under-supply of providers trained and willing to prescribe the medications. This article discusses physicians’ comparative…
Between 2010 and 2016, the proportion of women working in dentistry increased from 24.5% to 29.8%. Overall, female dentists were more racially/ethnically diverse, more likely to be foreign-trained, and more likely to work in pediatric dentistry than male dentists. Gender diversification in dentistry and other factors, including generational differences and changes in public policy, continue…
Evidence supports that integrated behavioral health care improves patient outcomes. Colocation, where health and behavioral health providers work in the same physical space, is a key element of integration, but national rates of colocation are unknown. This article establishes national colocation rates and analyzes variation by primary care provider (PCP) type, practice size, rural/urban setting,…
Evaluation provides valuable information about the quality and effectiveness of a training program and offers insight into how current training activities fit within the mission, vision, and core values of a program. The Health Workforce Training Program Evaluation Toolkit is a comprehensive “program evaluation 101” resource for both new and established programs seeking to learn…
An estimated one in 10 adults over the age of 60 suffers from some form of elder abuse. A key component of addressing ongoing elder abuse and the likelihood that its prevalence will increase as a result of a rapidly growing older adult population is the network of local and state agencies that form the…
Community health centers are a vital part of the primary and behavioral health care systems in rural areas. This article compares the staffing and services at these centers in both rural and urban communities. Findings show that behavioral health staff currently participating in the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) contributed more to visits for depression…
Difficulties in recruiting allied health professionals to rural and underserved areas are cause for concern given projections of increasing demand for numerous allied health occupations. Incentive programs are a common strategy to address health professional shortages. This report describes allied health incentive programs at the state level—their goals, policies, practices, and available data on their…
As one of the largest groups of clinically trained mental health providers in the United States, social workers are increasingly deployed on integrated health teams to address patients’ social determinants of health and provide behavioral health interventions. However, information about the specific content of social work practice in new models of healthcare is limited, and…
