The Health Workforce: A Critical Component Of The Health Care Infrastructure

Abstract

Editor’s note: This is the first in a periodic series of Health Affairs Blog posts on health workforce issues by Edward Salsberg. Mr. Salsberg has spent over 30 years studying the health workforce, including nearly 20 years establishing and directing three centers dedicated to workforce data collection, analysis and research. The first center, at the University at Albany, was focused on state health workforce data collection and issues. The second, at the Association of American Medical Colleges, was focused on the physician workforce across the nation. The third, the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, was authorized by the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Salsberg has now joined the faculty at George Washington University where they are establishing a new Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy. In the post below, Mr. Salsberg provides an overview of workforce issues. Future posts will discuss more specific health workforce questions and developments. It could be argued that the health workforce – the people who provide direct patient care, as well as the staff that support caregivers and health care institutions – is the most significant component of the infrastructure of the health care system. Yet as a nation we have invested very little in collecting and analyzing health workforce data or in supporting the necessary research to inform effective public and private decision making. The results of this lack of investment are surpluses and shortages, significant mal-distribution, and less efficient and effective care than would be possible with better intelligence on our workforce needs. For many health care professions, it takes years to build education and training capacity to increase, supply, or to change curriculum and modify the profession’s skill set. For these professions, we need to not only assess today’s needs but to project our future needs. What the nation needs is a system to provide data, research findings, and information to thousands of individual stakeholders. This includes individuals considering a health career; colleges, universities and training programs that will educate and prepare them; the health organizations who will employ them; policy makers who need to decide what, if any, programs and policies to support; and the private sector that needs to decide whether to invest in workforce development. The responsibility for assuring an adequate supply and a well prepared health workforce is shared between the public and private sectors at both the national and the state and local level. Regardless of who is making the decisions related to health professions education and training capacity and health professions preparation, accurate and timely data is extremely important to support informed decisions.