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…
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…
Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) has been shown to be effective for treating patients suffering from opioid use disorders (OUD), but there is a shortage of providers with Drug Addiction Treatment Act (DATA) waivers to provide such treatment. Designing policies that would assist in the retention of MAT providers who prescribe buprenorphine is dependent upon learning more…
Many community health centers (CHCs) have begun adjusting their payment systems to alter their workforce configurations. However, little is known about how these workforce adjustments impact the quality of patient care. This abstract discusses the development of a simulation tool that would help CHCs use data to model different workforce configuration scenarios to maximize patient…
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…
Community college (CC) is important for providing access to educational pathways for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, studies show that medical schools are less likely to accept qualified students who went to CC and thus may be missing opportunities to increase the diversity of their student body. This article describes a study that analyzed data…
Community colleges (CC) are an important pathway to the physician assistant (PA) profession, with 3 of 4 matriculants having a CC background. However, lower matriculation rates among similarly qualified applicants who transferred from a CC to a 4-year university compared to applicants with no CC background suggest that PA programs are missing important opportunities for…
Independent freestanding emergency departments (IFEDs) have increased rapidly over the last decade, especially in Texas. This growth calls for a closer look into the implications of these new models of health care organizations. This article examines the IFED physician workforce composition and changes in emergency physician workforce supply across states and in rural Texas.ArrayArticle Arrayhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-6773.13587November…
Health disparities have worsened over the last 20 years in the United States, and research has exposed the role of health care systems in contributing to these disparities. Based on race/ethnicity, sex, sexual identity, socioeconomic status, and geography, communities face disproportionately higher disparities in access, diagnosis, and treatment, ultimately resulting in adverse health outcomes. This…
