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Human Resources for Health

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Open Access 01-12-2018 | Research

A labor requirements function for sizing the health workforce

Authors: Sofia Cruz-Gomes, Mário Amorim-Lopes, Bernardo Almada-Lobo

Published in: Human Resources for Health | Issue 1/2018

Abstract

Background

Ensuring healthcare delivery is dependent both on the prediction of the future demand for healthcare services and on the estimation and planning for the Health Human Resources needed to properly deliver these services. Although the Health Human Resources planning is a fascinating and widely researched topic, and despite the number of methodologies that have been used, no consensus on the best way of planning the future workforce requirements has been reported in the literature. This paper aims to contribute to the extension and diversity of the range of available methods to forecast the demand for Health Human Resources and assist in tackling the challenge of translating healthcare services to workforce requirements.

Methods

A method to empirically quantify the relation between healthcare services and Health Human Resources requirements is proposed. For each one of the three groups of specialties identified—Surgical specialties, Medical specialties and Diagnostic specialties (e.g., pathologists)—a Labor Requirements Function relating the number of physicians with a set of specialty-specific workload and capital variables is developed. This approach, which assumes that health managers and decision-makers control the labor levels more easily than they control the amount of healthcare services demanded, is then applied to a panel dataset comprising information on 142 public hospitals, during a 12-year period.

Results

This method provides interesting insights on healthcare services delivery: the number of physicians required to meet expected variations in the demand for healthcare, the effect of the technological progress on healthcare services delivery, the time spent on each type of care, the impact of Human Resources concentration on productivity, and the possible resource allocations given the opportunity cost of the physicians’ labor.

Conclusions

The empirical method proposed is simple and flexible and produces statistically strong models to estimate Health Human Resources requirements. Moreover, it can enable a more informed allocation of the available resources and help to achieve a more efficient delivery of healthcare services.

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Title: A labor requirements function for sizing the health workforce
Authors: Sofia Cruz-Gomes
Mário Amorim-Lopes
Bernardo Almada-Lobo
Publication date: 01-12-2018
Publisher: BioMed Central
Published in: Human Resources for Health / Issue 1/2018
Electronic ISSN: 1478-4491
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-018-0334-4

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

Springer Medicine

A labor requirements function for sizing the health workforce

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

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