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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For several decades, researchers, policy analysts and consumer advocates have consistently found that the care provided by midwives differs from the medical model of care in ways that benefit women and their families in terms of quality, satisfaction and costs. In early 1998 a Taskforce on...
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Affirmative action has been used by institutions and individuals in the United States since the 1960s to increase the participation of women and racial and ethnic minorities in employment, contracting and higher education. This report utilizes a broad perspective to review the data and research...
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As the country strives to produce larger numbers of generalist physicians, considerable controversy has arisen over whether or not generalist applicants can be identified, recruited, and influenced to keep a generalist-oriented commitment throughout medical training. The authors present new and...
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Medication treatment for opioid use disorder is an important component of efforts to reduce the high social costs of prescription and non-prescription opioid abuse and mortality. This approach incorporates pharmacotherapies (e.g., buprenorphine, methadone, naltrexone) as part of treatment for...
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In 1999, California adopted historic legislation requiring that specific minimum nurse-to-patient ratios be established for all units in acute care hospitals in the state. The Department of Health Services established regulations in accordance with this legislation, and the ratios were implemented...
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Over the past 16 months, Healthforce Center at UCSF has gathered information to help policymakers, consumers and leaders of health care delivery organizations and education institutions better understand California's primary care workforce needs. As the project has progressed a singular...
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A severe underrepresentation of minority providers persists despite evidence of the benefits of a diverse workforce. The Institute of Medicine’s 2002 report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care recommended improving the diversity of the workforce as a key...
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Around 18 percent of adults in California report needing help for mental health problems or issues with substance abuse, but can the state's behavioral health workforce meet this growing demand? This research project explored the adequacy of California's current behavioral health workforce, which...
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There is a clear need for agile and effective change agents in today’s rapidly changing health care environment. Managers are uniquely positioned within organizations to play a pivotal role in informing and accelerating organizational transformation, but they often need support in developing the...
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Healthforce Center researchers have conducted numerous surveys and studies of advanced practice registered nurses, including nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, clinical nurse specialists, and nurse anesthetists. This research has examined: The characteristics of California’s nurse practitioner...
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The use of clinical decision support (CDS) tools to develop individualized, evidence-based treatment plans is becoming increasingly popular with electronic health records (EHR). The Willamette Dental Group (WDG) is one of the first dental practices to embed CDS in their dental EHR. Two modules were...
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The Clinic Leadership Network aimed to elevate diverse leaders in their mission to serve the California health care safety net. The network focused on supporting organizations to train and develop early leaders to expand organizational and field leadership capacity. Network activities included...
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The Care Team Integration of the Home-Based Workforce project seeks to improve health and satisfaction, and lower utilization costs by developing and introducing an untapped resource into the health care system – the personal home care aide (PHCA). PHCAs are in a unique position with...
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Established in 2007, the Clinic Leadership Institute (CLI) prepared health leaders of California community clinics and health centers to be effective and passionate agents of change. With participants ranging from administrative staff to new chief executive officers, CLI included two programs:...
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Access to oral health care has become a growing concern over the past decade. Despite efforts to improve the oral health of the nation's population, oral health disparities persist. These disparities are characterized by compromised oral health status, particularly among certain vulnerable...
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Information technology has become a priority in health systems around the country and will be an important resource in any national healthcare overhaul. Healthforce staff have completed evaluations of electronic medical systems in the Veterans Health Administration, the largest health system in the...
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Healthforce Center has prepared a series of brief reports on California’s health care workforce in seven health professions for the University of California Office of the President. Optometry Workforce and Education in California Oral Health Workforce and Education in California...
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Established in 2005, the California Improvement Network (CIN) is a learning and action community that advances equitable health care experiences and outcomes for Californians through cross-sector connections, spreading good ideas, and implementing improvements. Advancing health equity...
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UCSF School of Nursing researchers received a two-year grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to assess the utilization of Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNPs) in public mental health settings in California. The UCSF research team, in partnership with the California...
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Recent increases in enrollment in Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program) due to the Affordable Care Act have heightened concerns about whether sufficient numbers of physicians are participating in Medi-Cal to provide beneficiaries with adequate access to care. Medi-Cal beneficiaries may have...