Community Health Centers (CHCs) serve nearly 1 in 6 Medicaid enrollees and provide perinatal care to about 560,000 people, playing a critical role in prenatal and postpartum care for disadvantaged populations. While 41% of CHCs—often larger centers with multidisciplinary teams—offer prenatal care to higher proportions of non-White or non-English-speaking patients, little is known about the…
Appropriate prenatal care is critical to ensuring safe childbirth, but many populations face barriers that create inequities in maternal health outcomes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth emerged as a promising way to expand access, therefore driving its rapid adoption. This shift highlights the need to better understand the workforce providing telehealth for pregnancy care. This…
Burnout among community health center providers has worsened post-COVID-19, exacerbated by understaffing and heightened recruitment challenges due to competition from higher-paying hospitals and private practices. This article examines how 4 community health centers, recognized by their peers as leaders in addressing burnout and moral injury, are working to tackle these challenges.
Extensive research has established a strong link between overall nurse staffing levels and certain patient safety outcomes. In contrast, the impact of agency nurse staffing on patient outcomes has been studied less frequently, with inconsistent results. US studies examining agency hours often rely on cross-sectional designs, which, along with similarly limited research on overtime hours,…
Community Health Workers (CHWs) are increasingly recognized as essential healthcare providers in the United States. Valued for their deep understanding of the communities they serve, CHWs play a crucial role in building high-impact partnerships with low-income, underserved, and racial and ethnic minority populations. Despite the recognized value of CHWs in improving health outcomes, the integration…
COVID-19 placed unprecedented strain on the health workforce. Early in the pandemic, providers faced a novel, highly infectious pathogen, and while some areas experienced increased health care demands, others saw limits in nonessential services and decreased patient visits, leading to financial pressures and layoffs. This Health Affairs Scholar article explores the use of the publicly…
COVID‐19 placed incredible strain on health care systems and the global health workforce. The pandemic rapidly increased demand for health care services and created an acute need for the health workforce in many areas of care. Yet, it also brought the health workforce to the forefront of the policy agenda and revealed many innovative solutions…
Pediatric medical subspecialists offer care to children with uncommon or atypical health issues, those who haven’t responded well to standard primary care treatments, or those requiring specialized diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. Evaluating whether the number and distribution of these subspecialists meet the needs of the nation’s children is difficult due to a lack of evidence…
The physician assistant (PA) profession is among the least racially and ethnically diverse health professions requiring advanced education. Between 1995 and 2020, the percentage of Black PA graduates fell from 7% to 3.1%, while Hispanic representation increased from 4.5% to 7.9%. PA programs that transitioned from bachelor’s to master’s degrees experienced a 5.3% point decline…
Numerous areas of the United States have an inadequate supply of primary care physicians and the shortfall is expected to grow and spread. To address these concerns, as well as to improve the quality of the care delivered, health policy experts have recommended that medical practices transform to embrace “team-based” care, encouraging a broader range…
