In the News

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Democrat & Chronicle

We are still human, despite the high technology that increasingly shapes our lives and — we hope — our region’s economic development. So, even as photonics and other mind-blowing industries emerge, we go on aging, falling ill, getting injured, and requiring the kind of care only a human can provide. Health care workers, such as certified nursing assistants, will continue to be in high demand. In fact, the Center for Health Workforce Studies predicts New York will need more than 260,000 new nursing assistants between 2014 and 2024, and another 337,000 to fill existing positions as people leave for retirement or other reasons.

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DiagnosticImaging.com – Editor’s Corner

I recently sought to find a new primary-care physician ‘who’s located closer to where my wife and I live.

It ended up being a lot harder than I thought. Either doctors don’t take our insurance, aren’t taking new patients, or just don’t have 15 minutes to spare in the next few months.

The primary-care physician shortage is real, people. I am sure you didn’t need me to tell you that, but it’s interesting to experience firsthand an issue that we seem to talk about every day.

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Health Affairs Blog

For several decades, there has been a general consensus that the nation would benefit from an increased supply of primary care practitioners, including physicians. Most reform efforts to improve health care, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA), have viewed an increased focus on primary care as essential for improving the delivery system and outcomes of care. According to the Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) demand index, these efforts are beginning to pay off.

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Albany Times Union

Samaritan Hospital eliminated 22 full- and part-time positions for licensed practical nurses who served on staff teams treating hospital patients. The employees were offered jobs in other parts of St. Peter’s Health Partners, the hospital’s parent, said Norman Dascher, chief executive of Samaritan and St. Mary’s hospitals in Troy. Eighteen accepted the positions, two declined and left the hospital and two stayed on their medical units as patient-care technicians, spokesman Michael Mullaney said. St. Peter’s Hospital uses a staff model that includes registered nurses and aides, but not LPNs, Dascher said. Samaritan will adopt this model.

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Watchdog.org

Discounting the governor and the state flag, there isn’t much that the secluded backwoods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula have in common with the urban streets of Detroit. One thing they do have in common: not enough dentists. In all but seven of Michigan’s 83 counties, there is at least one area experiencing a shortage of dental professionals. It’s a truly statewide problem, one that affects a disproportionate number of children and low-income households.

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Kentucky Center for Economic Policy

The proposed changes to Kentucky’s Medicaid expansion include the elimination of dental coverage from the package of benefits for adults. Reducing access to dental care would likely lead to other, more serious health problems and cost the state more in overall Medicaid spending through greater use of emergency room services. Dental care makes up a small portion of the overall budget, but is a very efficient preventative medical service that is critical in Kentucky given our poor oral health.

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Albany Times Union

The University of Albany’s School of Public Health conducts periodic reports on the health care workforce. And while it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the job market is good for newly minted physicians, there are what could be seen as a couple of surprises tucked into the study.

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MedicalExpress.com

The health care sector is expected to grow about 22 percent between 2014 and 2024, according to a new UAlbany CHWS report. Between 2004 and 2014, jobs in the health care sector grew 20 percent, compared to three percent for all other sectors, according to a recent report by the University at Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS). The trend is expected to continue as the health care industry is projected to grow much faster than other industries through the next decade as well.

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