Workforce
The health care workforce consists of doctors, nurses, and other health professionals. A sufficient number and the right mix of professionals is essential for ensuring access to quality health care services delivered efficiently. Professional education and training are sponsored and overseen by colleges and universities, academic health centers, professional organizations, and hospitals; government agencies also participate in financing and oversight. An extensive hierarchy of professional organizations and public-sector regulatory authorities at both state and federal levels oversee the accreditation of education and training programs and the licensing of professionals. Medicare and, to a lesser extent, Medicaid provide considerable support for graduate medical education (GME) in hospital residency programs. Numerous federal and state health profession programs also support education of other professionals to ensure an adequate overall supply and to provide resources to shortage areas.
The Forum's workforce programming addressed the content, organization, and financing of health professions education; the adequacy of the current and future health workforce; and the potential impact of delivery system changes on workforce needs.
Diagnostic Errors: A Threat to Health and Impediment to Health Reform
Forum Session
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March 25, 2016
The Sticky Wicket of Projecting Physician Workforce Needs
Forum Session
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March 4, 2016
Graduate Medical Education: Proposals to Modify Medicare Financing
Forum Session
—
October 23, 2015
Challenges of Forecasting Physician Workforce Needs Amid Delivery System Transformation
Issue Brief
No. 855
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September 29, 2015
Goal-Oriented Chronic Care: Defining Concepts and Developing Tools
Forum Session
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September 25, 2015
Coaching, Connecting, Collaborating: The Community Health Worker's Role in Primary Care
Forum Session
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July 31, 2015
Building the Health Care Team: Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice
Forum Session
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May 15, 2015
The Oral Health Workforce: Working Together to Improve Access to Care?
Forum Session
—
April 10, 2015
Annual Report 2014
Annual Report
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April 1, 2015
Shifting Sands: Health Center Finances Under Health Reform
Forum Session
—
March 20, 2015
Health Policy Essentials: The Health Care Workforce
Fundamentals Briefing
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February 20, 2015
Health Policy Essentials 2015
Briefing Book
—
February 6, 2015
Health Policy Essentials 2015
Briefing Book
—
February 6, 2015
Promoting Evidence-Based Interventions: The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program
Forum Session
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October 10, 2014
Coordinating Chronic Care: Will New Incentives Spur Primary Care-Specialist Collaboration?
Forum Session
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June 6, 2014
Transforming Payment and Health Care Delivery: Early Reports from the State Innovation Model (SIM) Initiative
Forum Session
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April 18, 2014
Telehealth: Into the Mainstream?
Forum Session
—
April 11, 2014
Annual Report 2013
Annual Report
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April 1, 2014
Money Follows the Person (MFP) Rebalancing Demonstration: A Work in Progress
Background Paper
No. 85
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February 21, 2014
Medicaid Health Homes: Delivery System Glue for People with Chronic Health Conditions
Forum Session
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December 13, 2013
Medicaid Home- and Community-Based Services Programs Enacted by the ACA: Expanding Opportunities One Step at a Time
Background Paper
No. 86
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November 19, 2013
Reconsidering Scope of Practice: The Right Medicine for Primary Care?
Forum Session
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November 15, 2013
Implementing Pediatric Medical Homes: Challenges of Improving Primary Care for Children
Forum Session
—
November 8, 2013
Smoothing Disparities in Physician Supply: A Role for Graduate Medical Education?
Forum Session
—
October 25, 2013
Health Workforce Needs: Projections Complicated by Practice and Technology Changes
Issue Brief
No. 851
—
October 22, 2013
The Commission on Long-Term Care: Background Behind the Mission
The Basics
—
October 17, 2013
Transforming Behavioral Health Practice, Payment, and Policy: Too Fast, Too Slow, or Just Right?
Forum Session
—
September 20, 2013
Replacing the SGR: Changing the Paradigm for Medicare Physician Payment?
Forum Session
—
September 20, 2013
Graduate Medical Education: Targeting Medicare's Investment?
Forum Session
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September 6, 2013
State Variation in Long-Term Services and Supports: Location, Location, Location
Forum Session
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July 19, 2013
EMS "Hot Spotting": San Diego's Experience Creating a System of Care for Frequent Users of Emergency Medical Services
Forum Session
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June 14, 2013
Projecting Health Care Workforce Needs in an Era of Practice and Technological Change
Forum Session
—
April 19, 2013
Annual Report 2012
Annual Report
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April 1, 2013
Family Caregivers: The Primary Providers of Assistance to People with Functional Limitations and Chronic Impairments
Background Paper
No. 84
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January 11, 2013
Safety Net Integration: Tackling Fragmentation While Improving Access to Care and Efficiency
Forum Session
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December 7, 2012
Assisted Living Facilities and Their Growing Role in Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS)
Forum Session
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November 30, 2012
Training Tomorrow's Physicians: Science Alone Is Not Enough
Forum Session
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November 16, 2012
Breaking Down Silos of Care: Integration of Social Support Services with Health Care Delivery
Forum Session
—
October 19, 2012
Community Health Workers: A Front Line for Primary Care?
Issue Brief
No. 846
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September 17, 2012
Starting with the Public Good: Nursing Education for 21st Century Care
Forum Session
—
June 8, 2012
Examining the Condition of the Health Care Safety Net: Time to Re-Cast?
Forum Session
—
May 18, 2012
Health Professions Education and Professional Obligations
The Basics
—
April 30, 2012
Caesar's Ghost: The Effect of the Rising Rate of C-Sections on Health Care Costs and Quality
Forum Session
—
March 30, 2012
The Aging Services Network: Serving a Vulnerable and Growing Elderly Population in Tough Economic Times
Background Paper
No. 83
—
December 13, 2011
Mission Possible? Saving on Health Care Costs by Reducing Unnecessary Services
Forum Session
—
December 2, 2011
Expanded Scope of Practice: A Response to Demand for Primary Care?
Forum Session
—
November 4, 2011
Graduate Medical Education: Producing the Right Workforce for Tomorrow?
Forum Session
—
October 7, 2011
Who’s Using Whom? Experience with User Fee Programs at FDA
Forum Session
—
September 23, 2011
Aligning Graduate Medical Education with Public Policy
Background Paper
No. 82
—
September 14, 2011
Team-Based Care Takes Training: The Push for Interprofessional Education
Forum Session
—
June 17, 2011
Rocky Mountain Highs and Lows: Efforts to Improve Health and Reduce Costs in Denver
Site Visit
—
May 31–June 2, 2011
Pioneering Transformation: Treating Chronic and Complex Disease in Underserved Areas
Forum Session
—
April 8, 2011
Health Policy Essentials: The Fundamentals of Long-Term Services and Supports
Fundamentals Briefing
—
April 1, 2011
The Hospitalist: Better Value in Inpatient Care?
Issue Brief
No. 842
—
March 30, 2011
Caring for Patients with Advanced and Serious Illnesses: Changing Medical Practice and Patient Expectations
Forum Session
—
March 18, 2011
Oral Health Update: Ten Years After the Surgeon General’s Report
Forum Session
—
January 21, 2011
100 Years After Flexner: Time for Innovation in Medical Education?
Forum Session
—
November 4, 2010
Transforming Primary Care: Implications for Practice Design and Workforce
Forum Session
—
October 15, 2010
Tapping the Potential of the Health Care Workforce: Scope-of-Practice and Payment Policies for Advanced Practice Nurses and Physician Assistants
Background Paper
No. 76
—
July 6, 2010
Incorporating Innovations in Health Care: Workforce Implications
Forum Session
—
June 11, 2010
Health Care Shortage Designations: HPSA, MUA, and TBD
Background Paper
No. 75
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June 4, 2010
Physician Assessment: Measuring Competence and Performance
Background Paper
No. 74
—
May 11, 2010
The Medical Education of Physicians
Background Paper
No. 73
—
February 17, 2010
Conflicts of Interest in Medicine II: Issues Surrounding Industry Funding of Physician Education
Forum Session
—
December 11, 2009
Diversifying the Health Policy Workforce: Mentoring
Small-Group Session
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July 24, 2009
Conflicts of Interest in Medicine: What's the Problem?
Forum Session
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May 15, 2009
Primary Care Physician Supply, Physician Compensation, and Medicare Fees: What Is the Connection?
Issue Brief
No. 827
—
November 3, 2008
Physician Income and Medical Practice Differences Across Specialties: Should Medicare Care?
Small-Group Session
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May 2, 2008
Shampoo, Sunscreen, and Strep Tests: The Retail Approach to Primary Care
Forum Session
—
November 9, 2007
Diversifying the Health Policy Workforce
Small-Group Session
—
October 31, 2007
The Economics of Quality: Changing Incentives in Cincinnati
Site Visit
—
May 24–25, 2004
The U.S. Health Workforce: Definitions, Dollars, and Dilemmas
Background Paper
—
April 11, 2003
Primary Care: Why and Whither?
Forum Session
—
December 9, 2002
Too Few? Too Many? The Right Kind? Physician Supply in an Aging and Multicultural Society
Forum Session
—
September 10, 2002
Federal and State Perspectives on GME Reform
Issue Brief
No. 764
—
June 22, 2001
Federal and State Perspectives on GME Reform
Forum Session
—
June 22, 2001
Nurse Workforce: Condition Critical
Issue Brief
No. 763
—
June 1, 2001
Nurse Workforce: Condition Critical
Forum Session
—
June 1, 2001
Site Visit to Seattle — University of Washington Academic Medical Center
Site Visit
—
April 10–11, 2000
The Nursing Center in Concept and Practice: Delivery and Financing Issues in Serving Vulnerable People
Issue Brief
No. 746
—
September 13, 1999
The Nursing Center in Concept and Practice: Delivery and Financing Issues in Serving Vulnerable People
Forum Session
—
September 13, 1999
Canada's Generalist Training: Are There Lessons for the United States?
Issue Brief
No. 742
—
June 25, 1999
Canada's Generalist Training: Are There Lessons for the United States?
Forum Session
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June 25, 1999
Biological Terrorism: Is the Health Care Community Prepared?
Issue Brief
No. 731
—
February 11, 1999
Biological Terrorism: Is the Health Care Community Prepared?
Forum Session
—
February 11, 1999
Federal Support of Medical Education: Framing the Issues for the Systems Reform Debate
Issue Brief
No. 648
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May 6, 1994

