This rapid-response brief provides information about the respiratory therapist workforce in the US. It includes descriptions of the supply, distribution, and education pathways of the workforce. The brief also addresses COVID-19 emergency concerns about the respiratory therapist workforce capacity and examples of state approaches to address workforce gaps.ArrayBrief Arrayhttps://depts.washington.edu/fammed/chws/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/04/2020-Respiratory-Therapist-RR-Brief.pdfApril 16, 2020Array, Array, Array, Array, Array…
Chronic pain is widespread among US adults, and overreliance on pharmacological approaches to managing this pain has contributed to the nation’s opioid addiction crisis. There is growing recognition of the importance of directing patients towards non-pharmacological approaches to manage pain. This report compares 10 different health care occupations and certified practitioners in providing non-pharmacological pain…
Therapy assistants represent approximately half of the therapy workforce in skilled nursing facilities. Employment of therapy assistants enables skilled nursing facilities to provide more therapy services at lower costs. As new payment mechanisms provide incentives for therapy in skilled nursing facilities, employment of therapy assistants may be a cost-effective way to continue to provide services…
Pharmacists are increasingly recognized as crucial members of the health care team. To date, no single source of information exists that best characterizes the increasingly complex nature of the pharmacist workforce. Improving awareness of the potential roles of pharmacists would help to more effectively incorporate them into the health care team and improve care. This…
Pharmacists provide a broad spectrum of services depending on their practice setting and scope-of-practice laws within their state. Lately, pharmacists have been increasingly used in a variety of ways, taking on roles such as medication therapy management, chronic disease management, patient education, health promotion, and disease prevention. To take on this surge in demand, states…
The health care industry lost 1.5 million jobs between March and April 2020, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. Losses spread across the major health care sectors of hospitals (22.7%), ambulatory care settings (39.6%), and long-term care (LTC) facilities (37.7%). The job loss in LTC facilities (eg, skilled nursing facilities, residential care,…
The traditional role of physical therapists is to prescribe exercises and provide hands-on care to help patients develop, maintain, and restore functional ability that may be limited by injuries, aging, and chronic or progressive diseases. A primary impact of the COVID-19 emergency on physical therapists has been an involuntarily reduction of employment due to a…
The primary role of the clinical laboratory workforce is to collect and analyze biological specimens to provide patients and medical providers information for preventing, diagnosing, treating, and managing disease. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical role that the clinical laboratory workforce plays in the healthcare system. This policy brief focuses on 6 clinical lab…
The Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) is a new reimbursement policy for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) that was implemented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in 2019. PDPM disincentivizes provision of intensive physical and occupational therapy, which has caused concerns that declines in therapy staffing may negatively impact patient outcomes. Therapy staff includes physical…
Nonstandard work arrangements includes overlapping concepts of: 1) contingent work (based on self-employment status, length of work, method of payment, and connection to employer), 2) alternative work (ie, temporary agency worker, on-call worker, contract company worker, and independent contractor), and 3) electronically-mediated work (sometimes referred to as “gig work”). Between 1995 and 2015 the healthcare…
