Veterans' Location in Health Professional Shortage Areas: Implications for Access to Care and Workforce Supply.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To describe the distribution of Veterans in areas of the United States where there are potentially inadequate supplies of health professionals, and to explore opportunities suggested by this distribution for fostering health workforce flexibility.

Data sources

County-level data from the 2015-2016 Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA's) Area Health Resources Files (AHRF) were used to estimate Veteran populations in HRSA-designated health professional shortage areas (HPSAs). This information was then linked to 2015 VA health facility information from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Study design

Potential Veteran populations living in Shortage Area Counties with no VHA facilities were estimated, and the composition of these populations was e

SUBMITTER: Doyle JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5269541 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature