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IT Implementation in a Rural Hospital: A Cautionary Tale
09-01-09
An increasing number of hospitals are implementing electronic medical records and other information technology (IT), and national policy is focused on fostering expansion of these systems. In September 2004, a 100-bed acute care hospital in a rural community was awarded a grant to implement and...
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The Utilization of Medical Assistants in California’s Licensed Community Clinics
07-01-09
Medical Assistants (MAs) play a key role as clinical support staff in California’s licensed community clinics. This issue brief examines patterns in community clinic utilization of MAs over the period 2005-2007. Key themes presented include overall community clinic growth (clinic sites &...
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Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners in Specialty Care: Six Practices Make It Work
06-01-09
Physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) are increasingly being incorporated into outpatient specialty practices to improve access to care and reduce wait times. PAs and NPs also bolster the quality and financial profitability of specialty practices by allowing physicians to focus...
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Restructuring California's Mental Health Workforce: Interviews with Key Stakeholders
03-01-09
The mental health workforce is challenged to provide needed mental health services to a growing and increasingly diverse population in California. By interviewing stakeholders and reviewing key literature this report seeks to assess the supply, demand, education, training, and diversity of...
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The Effects of Information Technology on Nurses and Patients in the VHA (Stanford, CA)
02-01-09
This presentation takes a closer look at the impact of the CPRS and BCMA implementation in the VA on nurses and care quality, as this qualitative and quantitative study finds that overall quality neither increased nor decreased and nurse staffing was not affected.
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Exploring Professional-Related Outcome Differences Between Phlebotomy Technicians, Medical Laboratory Technicians, and Medical Technologists
07-01-08
As part of a large scale practice analysis on Phlebotomy Technicians (PBTs), Medical Laboratory Technicians (MLTs), and Medical Technologists (MTs), additional data on four "home made measures" of professional-related outcomes, i.e., professional development, quality assurance monitoring, employer...
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EMS Workforce for the 21st Century: A National Assessment
06-13-08
Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics are a critical component of any community’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system. Assuring the continued viability of the prehospital EMS workforce is a key concern for many local, State, Federal, and tribal EMS agencies, as well as national...
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Promising Scope of Practice Models for the Health Professions
12-01-07
Legal scopes of practice for the health professions exist in statutes enacted by the state legislature and in regulations developed and implemented by administrative agencies, such as health professions boards. The purpose of this brief is to examine scope of practice issues within the context of...
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Overview of Nurse Practitioner Scopes of Practice in the United States
12-01-07
Nurse Practitioners (NPs) are registered nurses who are prepared beyond initial nursing education in an NP program to provide primary care directly to patients. NP educational requirements, certification mechanisms and legal scopes of practice are decided at the state level and vary considerably....
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Funding CHW Programs and Services in Minnesota: Looking to the Future
12-01-06
Minnesota is often ranked as the healthiest state in America. However, for many Minnesotans, high quality health care and high health status are still elusive. In particular, several racial and ethnic minority groups in Minnesota experience higher rates of disease and premature death than white...
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Advancing Community Health Worker Practice and Utilization: The Focus on Financing
12-01-06
There is a growing interest in the use of community health workers in various roles in the US health care system. These workers go by various titles and names—including promotora and community health advisor—but all assist members of the communities they serve. As the role of these workers becomes...
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An Aging U.S. Population and the Health Care Workforce: Factors Affecting the Need for Geriatric Care Workers
02-01-06
As the U.S. experiences a rapid aging of the nation's population, with the number of Americans age 65 and over doubling between 2000 and 2030, the demand for long-term care will rise significantly. The nation faces critical shortages in the health care workforce, particularly among direct...
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Minimum Nurse Staffing Ratios in California Acute Care Hospitals
12-01-00
As California implements its minimum staffing legislation, it becomes increasingly important that researchers continue to examine the relationship between RN staffing and quality of care. Research does not support the general assumption that more RN staffing is always better; policymakers and...
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Improving Oral Health Care Systems in California: A Report of the California Dental Access Project, 2000
12-01-00
California and the nation now face an oral disease situation that is of a crisis nature. The situation has developed over several decades and involves a complex set of problems, institutions, attitudes and financing arrangements. For millions across California, access to oral health care services...
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Recreating Health Professional Practice for a New Century
12-01-98
This fourth and final major report of the Pew Health Professions Commission comes at the end of the most dynamic decade ever faced by the nation’s health professionals. As disruptive as this period has been, however, it may only have been the prelude. The health care system in the US will continue...
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Charting A Course for the 21st Century: Physician Assistants and Managed Care
12-01-98
As managed care creates new mechanisms for the delivery of health services, it will inevitably put pressure on the role and function of health professionals. Physician assistants (PAs) will not be exempt from these changes. In fact, many of these shifts may strain the relationship between the PA...
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The Opportunity That is Nursing
10-01-98
Editorial that briefly described findings from a project on strategies for the future of nursing.
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Physicians and Nonphysician Clinicians: Complements or Competitors?
09-02-98
Editorial accompanying an article on trends in the supplies of advanced practice nurses and physician assistants.
Full Publication
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Reforming Health Care Workforce Regulation: Policy Considerations for the 21st Century
12-01-95
Though it has served us well in the past, health care workforce regulation is out of step with today’s health care needs and expectations. It is criticized for increasing costs, restricting managerial and professional flexibility, limiting access to care, and having an equivocal relationship to...