Abstract
[This is an excerpt.] In this study we continue our analysis of the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) with the purpose of gaining new insights into the program’s performance regarding the distribution of providers in high-need areas. The objective of this study is threefold. First, we focus on the recent retention trends of NHSC program alumni in Health Professional Shortage Areas(HPSAs). Second, we analyze the retention patterns of those NHSC participants who serve in Indian Health Service (IHS) sites and compare them with that of all NHSC participants, and third, we examine the recruiting and retention effects of the program.
In a previous project (Lewin, 2014), we examined short- and long-term retention in HPSAs of providers who participated in NHSC LRP and SP and compared their retention with the retention of non-participants working in those areas, using data from the period 2000-2013. In the current study we increase the timeframe by adding two more years of NHSC administrative data (2014 and 2015) to determine whether the retention patterns changed over the more recent years, given the important recent program growth and changes. We update and expand the data infrastructure we constructed for the previous project, and as before, we rely on dataon NHSC program participants, Provider 360 data, Medicare data and data on HPSA designations. Our current NHSC data covers the period between 2000 and 2015, the Provider 360 data is recorded as of January 2015, and the Medicare data spans the period between 2005 and 2014. The Provider 360 and the Medicare data allow us to observe NHSC participants and their location after their separation from service. Combining their post-servicelocation with information on whether that location is a HPSA or not, we construct HPSA retention statistics for all the program participants that we identified in Provider 360 or Medicare data. [To read more, click View Resource.]
This resource is found in our Actionable Strategies for Government: Optimizing Workload & Workflows (Support & Ensure Safe Staffing).
