Recent Publications
Direct Care Worker Wage Issue Brief
In 2019 The Iowa CareGivers partnered with Iowa Workforce Development to conduct a Direct Care Worker Wage and Benefit Survey.
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The Nature of the Rural-Urban Mortality GapUsing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers at USDA’s Economic Research Service find that the age-adjusted natural-cause mortality rate for the prime working age population was 43 percent higher in rural areas than in urban areas.
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Preparing Behavioral Health Clinicians for Success and Retention in Rural Safety-Net Practices
Increasing access to behavioral health providers in safety-net clinics is vital to ensuring behavioral health care equity. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the factors that better prepare behavioral health providers to practice in these settings.
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Institutional Efforts to Address Legacies of Slavery—Implications for the Health Care System
Despite having ended more than 150 years ago, the legacies of slavery continue to impact almost every aspect of life in the US, contributing to persistent and large disparities across a broad range of sectors. These disparities largely exist because of structural racism that is baked into society in big ways (laws, rules, and practices) and in everyday ways (how teachers treat children, how physicians care for their patients).1
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New findings on the state of the nursing workforce
Key findings of the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses (NSSRN) show that the nursing workforce is becoming more diverse, more highly educated, but less satisfied with their job. The survey data also show the effects of COVID on the profession, while workforce projections show shortages increasing in nursing occupations through 2036.
National Plan for Health Workforce Well-BeingThe National Plan for Health Workforce Well-Being is intended to inspire collective action that focuses on changes needed across the health system and at the organizational level to improve the well-being of the health workforce.
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Taking Action Against Clinician BurnoutPatient-centered, high-quality health care relies on the well-being, health, and safety of health care clinicians. However, alarmingly high rates of clinician burnout in the United States are detrimental to the quality of care being provided, harmful to individuals in the workforce, and costly. It is important to take a systemic approach to address burnout that focuses on the structure, organization, and culture of health care.
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The Health of US Primary Care: 2024 Scorecard Report — No One Can See You Now
Grounded in the recommendations of the 2021 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report, Implementing High Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundations of Healthcare, 8 this year’s Scorecard report assesses the health of primary care at the federal level using measures of access, financing, workforce/training, and research. This assessment identifies five reasons why primary care in the United States is inaccessible for so many Americans.
Reforms Could Expand Behavioral Health Care AccessThis year, Medicare will increase coverage for behavioral health services that community health workers and peer support specialists provide. Commonwealth Fund senior fellow Nathaniel Counts explains how these reforms will expand the type of providers eligible for reimbursement while increasing resources for early intervention and crisis care. Counts says the reforms also acknowledge the importance of addressing Medicare beneficiaries’ social needs.
Pharmacists Co-Located With Primary Care Physicians: Understanding Delivery of Interprofessional Primary CareDespite evidence supporting the integration of pharmacists in team-based primary care, little information exists on the co-location of pharmacists with primary care physicians in the United States, and even less information on the factors associated with these models in primary care.
This article analyzes the degree to which pharmacists are co-located with primary care practices and characteristics associated with co-location. NACCHO’s release of their 2022 Profile Study report.The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) recently released the 2022 National Profile of Local Health Departments (Profile) Study report. The study represents the largest and most reliable data source on local health department infrastructure and practice. Findings in the study are broken down by rural and urban and explore the local public health workforce, services, leadership, finance, and more.
Chartis Study Reveals America’s Rural Hospitals Fall Deeper into the Red as ‘Care Deserts’ Grow Bigger.Chartis, a comprehensive healthcare advisory firm, released new research indicating that 50% of the nation’s rural hospitals are operating at a loss and 418 are vulnerable to closure. Data and insights from “Unrelenting Pressure Pushes Rural Safety Net Crisis into Uncharted Territory” will be presented this week to members of Congress, rural healthcare advocates, and state offices of rural health during the National Rural Health Association’s (NRHA) 35th annual Rural Health Policy Institute Conference in Washington.
Pennsylvania Hospitals Cut Staff Turnover by 28%The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania’s (HAP) workforce report found that Pennsylvania hospitals reduced turnover rates by 28% in 2023. Efforts to improve pay and benefits, talent development, and worker safety have been effective.
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Better Primary Care: What Will It Take to Get the U.S. to Wake Up to the Need?U.S. spending on primary care fell again, to a mere 4.6% of total health care dollars spent. Primary Care Collaborative is the only national multi-stakeholder organization focused on whole-person primary care.
Primary Care Collaborative President & CEO Ann Greiner joins hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to discuss better compensation and reimbursement for primary care clinicians and efforts to increase training, expanding access to community health centers, and opportunities for primary care to help as the country faces a mental health crisis. New Insights on a Recurring Theme: A Secondary Analysis of Nurse Turnover Using the National Sample Survey of Registered NursesNurse workforce shortages are not new, yet concerns about a shortfall of nurses intensified across health care settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand how a health care crisis such as COVID-19 can impact nurse turnover at national and regional levels, documentation of a baseline national turnover metric is needed for comparing future registered nurse (RN) workforce changes.
Support for Vulnerable Rural Hospitals: Lessons LearnedAn overview of state and federal programs and models designed to support Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and other rural hospitals describes challenges – including chronic workforce shortages, high operating and staffing costs, inadequate reimbursement, operational and regulatory issues, and the diverse demographics of rural communities.
More Than Half of US Rural Hospitals No Longer Offer Birthing Services—Here’s WhyMore than 200 hospitals in rural areas of the US have closed up shop on labor and delivery services over the past 10 years, according to a recent report. The result: more than half of rural hospitals no longer offer birthing services. And as hospital expenses increase, patients in rural areas may face even greater difficulties accessing maternity care, leading some experts to declare a state of crisis.
Publication Iowa continues to have the 2nd highest and fastest growing rate of new cancers in the U.S.The Iowa Cancer Registry released their annual Cancer in Iowa Report, with new data showing Iowa still has the second-highest and fastest-growing cancer incidence rate in the country.
While there is no single cause for Iowa's high incidence rate, one of many contributing factors could be high alcohol consumption. The 2024 Cancer in Iowa Report focuses on alcohol consumption as one of many risk factors for cancer. |