Small Area Analysis (SAA) is a research technique used to analyze variations in health service utilization and resource allocation among neighboring communities. SAA focuses on specific areas or populations to identify significant differences and needs among well-defined small areas within a larger geographic boundary. This web page provides answers to common questions about SAA through…
Safety net practices are important for providing care to patients in underserved areas. The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted these programs and their clinicians with previous studies having predicted that many clinicians are likely to leave their jobs as a result of the pandemic. More research is therefore needed to better understand the specific impacts…
Safety net practices are important for providing care to patients in underserved areas. The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted these programs and their clinicians with previous studies having predicted that many clinicians are likely to leave their jobs as a result of the pandemic. More research is therefore needed to better understand the specific impacts…
This collection of research articles authored by staff from HRSA-funded Health Workforce Research Centers (HWRCs) are published together as an open access supplement in the Medical Care Research and Review journal, providing a comprehensive picture of the US health care and health support workforce today. Below are the individual articles from the supplement: COVID-19 and…
The Health Workforce Deficit Estimator is an online tool to help state and federal planners consider different strategic approaches to ensure sufficient heath workforce for COVID-19. Built off the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation demand model, the tool currently shows deficits in supply for respiratory therapists, intensivists, hospitalists, and critical care nurses in certain…
Despite efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion has increased access to primary care, as well as the availability of behavioral health services, including treatment for both mental health and substance use disorders. However, increasing the availability of health and behavioral health services requires an increase in providers. Several federal programs support training…
In the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care decision-makers in North Carolina needed information about the available health workforce in order to conduct workforce surge planning and to anticipate concerns about professional or geographic workforce shortages. This article describes how data was used in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in North…
States responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with a variety of approaches to ensure adequate health workforce capacity as well as strategies to expand access to care for needed services. In order to better understand pandemic issues and challenges faced by states as well as strategies they used to address them, the Health Workforce Technical Assistance…
The Mullan Institute estimates that between now and March 20, 2021, 7% of counties in the USwill experience hospital workforce staffing strains due to COVID-19 hospitalizations. Using new county-level projections of COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU occupancy provided, it is estimated that 209 counties will need to implement crisis workforce strategies. This involves tiered staffing strategies…
Since health professionals began administering 2 FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020, the rollout has encountered several challenges and failed to meet initial targets for total vaccinations provided. The current health workforce has been identified as one possible bottleneck for distributing the vaccine, prompting a general call to authorize as many health care professionals to…