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 workforce as a barrier to the delivery of high-quality serious illness care in the community. Healthforce Center faculty and staff are convening a Workforce Summit with the sponsorship of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to address these issues. The summit will identify barriers to and facilitators of workforce improvement; gaps in research that must be filled; and specific approaches that can be undertaken to accelerate progress. Participants in the summit include field experts, health care organization leaders and policy leaders, who together will develop a plan of policy change, organizational change and research to ensure the adequacy of the health workforce to meet current and future needs of those with serious and complex illnesses.
The summit is shaped by a series of commissioned papers that discuss the current state of knowledge and policy regarding the health workforce in the care of those with complex illness. Five papers from the summit will be presented as part of the symposium. The first will present the recommendations of the summit. The other four presentations will be by authors of the commissioned papers. The recommendations will provide actionable plans for health delivery systems, insurers, policy leaders and funders, to guide efforts over the next five years.
More information: http://workforcesummit.ucsf.edu