At Healthforce Center, our research on the health care workforce offers timely analysis and guidance for providers, policymakers and funders in addressing critical delivery and improvement challenges. We have a team of nationally recognized research experts who work to define issues and support health policy change with rigorous analysis, high-quality data and actionable recommendations.
Our expertise covers the entire health workforce — the full range of licensed professions, credentialed occupations, and emerging roles such as community health workers and peer providers, and across all types of settings from acute to long-term care. We specialize in examining evolving trends in care models, care team composition, and promising new models for the delivery of high-quality health care.
Committed to Improving Health Equity
Our commitment to improving health equity and ensuring a diverse health workforce translates into research that emphasizes expanding cultural competence and language concordance, promoting workforce diversity through education and development programs, and evaluating care models that ensure health equity.
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The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 expanded access to health insurance for millions of Americans. One likely effect of greater health insurance coverage is more demand for health care services, which will lead to a growing need for health care workers. In collaboration with colleagues at...
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This four-year project is evaluating the effect of increasing access to professional interpreters for older hospitalized patients with limited English proficiency. The study is looking at impact on health care utilization, patient and caregiver satisfaction and knowledge, and clinicians’ use of...
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Oral health is a significant concern among vulnerable populations that are plagued by coverage, quality, and payment challenges, as well as by other health issues. Racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in access to preventive dental care and treatment remain a public health challenge. Two of...
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Electronic health records (EHRs) are an important tool for managing information about patients and improving outcomes and processes of care. In 2009, President Obama signed the federal Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The act provided $27 billion for...
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The UCSF Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care (UCSF HWRC) is a dynamic hub of policy-oriented research and investigation, established through support from the US Bureau of the Health Professions. The mission is to help answer the essential question: Is our health care workforce...
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Payment for medical care in the United States is undergoing a seismic shift, from payment based on the volume of care provided to payment based on value. The emerging payment models change incentives and spread risk between health plans and providers. The intent is to create a delivery system that...
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Designing a health care system that better meets societal needs provides a tremendous opportunity for meaningful change. Inspiring and developing physician leaders are key strategies to catalyze these efforts during dynamic times. The UCSF Institute for Physician Leadership (IPL) program provided a...
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In 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on the Future of Nursing released a report called The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation subsequently established the Campaign for Action as a national initiative to guide implementation of the...
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Applications now open for next cohort The application for Managing to Leading cohort 8 is now open! Please read program details below and apply online by Friday, March 14, 2025. Contact Brianna Fennell with any questions about the application or program. Program overview The Cedars...
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Nursing care is a core element of patient safety and quality within hospitals, but measures for the quality of nursing care during birth have not been established. This study, led by Audrey Lyndon at New York University, breaks new ground in determining relationships between nursing care during...
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During the past two decades, there has been a resurgence in union activity in the health care industry in the United States, particularly in hospitals. As health care unions become more influential in hospital operations and in national policymaking, it is important we understand how they are...
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The UCSF Clinical Leadership Accelerator (UCSF-CLA) program provided an opportunity for faculty to gain insights and skills to lead change and improve health care. The program was free of cost to participants thanks to funding through the Chancellor's Strategic Initiative, and it was administered...
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The California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) Alumni Network are graduates of the CHCF Health Care Leadership Program. They seek to improve health and health care delivery in California by: Facilitating learning Collaborating across health care sectors Performing collective actions...
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The California Health Care Foundation's (CHCF) Health Care Leadership Program helps to transform today’s clinicians into tomorrow’s leaders. Up to 32 physicians, behavioral health providers, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and other health care professionals are selected annually for this two-year,...
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As the United States continues to experience growth in the population older adults, there is an urgent need to improve care for individuals living in the community with chronic and serious illness. Numerous analyses and health care leaders have identified the lack of an adequately-prepared...
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Health care in California and in the nation requires an adequate supply of well-prepared professional nurses. Complex demographic, economic, and political factors influence changes in the demand for nurses. The Healthforce Center has collaborated with the Hospital Association of Southern California...
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The patient surges due to COVID-19 require rapid training and deployment of the existing health workforce, innovative and creative methods to increase the skills and types of individuals providing care on the frontlines, and the launch of alternative care settings. This page provides...
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Greater reliance on nurse practitioners (NPs) has been widely recognized as a critical component to the successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In particular, NPs are viewed integral to the delivery of primary care services, demand for which is expected to increase as more...
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Support at Home (S@H) is a pilot program of the San Francisco Department of Aging and Adult Services to provide home care vouchers to keep San Francisco adults with disabilities and seniors living safely in the community. The goal of Support at Home is to serve individuals who are not eligible for...
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As the nation seeks to improve access to primary care services, medical assistants (MAs) will be a critical component of that growth. Medical assisting is one of the fastest growing occupations in the country with large numbers of annual job openings. Historically, MA training has been of...