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The Wenatchee World

The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community continues to advocate for legislation that would allow dental therapists to practice throughout the state.

Dental therapists are mid-level providers capable of performing about 50 of the approximately 500 procedures a dentist can provide, such as fillings and simple extractions…

…According to a 2017 study by the Center for Health Workforce Studies, rural, low-income and patients with limited English proficiency have less access to oral health care and poorer oral health outcomes…

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Dentistry Today

The COVID-19 pandemic upended the healthcare system and prompted the use of telehealth by providers in medicine, behavioral health, and oral health. Dental providers are particularly susceptible due to the aerosols generated during dental procedures that could facilitate COVID-19 transmission. This high risk resulted in the suspension of many routine dental procedures in the early days of the pandemic, severely limiting access to oral health services. Across the US, states have implemented teledentistry in response to COVID-19 in varying degrees.

With the rapidly evolving use of teledentistry, a new study conducted by the Oral Health Workforce Research Center (OHWRC) at the University at Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) conducted case studies on the use of teledentistry following the COVID-19 pandemic in 4 states—California, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin…

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Crain’s New York Business

The city’s health care workforce is leaving pre-pandemic levels in the dust as it continued its steady growth through last month, buoyed largely by gains in health care services outside of hospitals, new state data shows…

…Robert Martiniano, senior program manager at the SUNY Albany School of Public Health’s Center for Health Workforce Studies, attributed that to rising demand for home health care services that is fueled by an aging population and the growing popularity of aging in the community rather than in a residential facility.

Home care, which is categorized under ambulatory services in the state’s data, tallied nearly 247,000 workers in September—a 13.6% jump year over year.

Also within ambulatory services, jobs in physician’s offices rose 6.7% from 60,000 in September 2021 to 64,000 last month. Outpatient care centers reported about 24,000 workers, up 6.3% from a year ago.

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Crain’s New York Business

Workforce issues such as high turnover and vacancy rates for direct support professionals are causing New York’s disability service providers to lose just over $100 million annually, a new report finds…

…Jean Moore, the director of the SUNY Albany Center for Workforce Studies, said many health care sectors are competing for limited numbers of workers, and the pandemic exacerbated the problem.

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Crain’s New York Business

Health care organizations need to focus on creating pipelines for new talent, recruiting professionals, retaining and training workers, as well as making sure hospitals and home care agencies collaborate in order to repair the sector’s workforce issues, according to a new report…

Jean Moore, director of the Center for Health Workforce Studies, SUNY Albany, which worked on the report, said localizing initiatives is another key to success in both partnerships between organizations and workforce retention.

“What works in Plattsburgh might not work in New York City,” she said. “We can learn from each other but also recognize that geography matters and can influence what you decide to do.”

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Crain’s New York Business 

The state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities and the Office of Mental Health are two of the top three worst offenders in overtime usage in 2021, a report from the state comptroller’s office has found.

OPWDD and the mental health office, along with the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, account for just 25% of the state workforce but 66% of overtime hours logged by all state agencies in the year, the report, which was released Friday, found. The cost of overtime in 2021 reached an all-time high of more than $924 million and total overtime used rose by more than 800,000 hours. Nearly double the number of workers left agencies as were hired…

…According to the comptroller’s office, most overtime was performed in agencies that have already typically relied on it, such as OPWDD and the Department of Corrections. Jean Moore, the director of the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the State University of New York at Albany, echoed that turnover rates within agencies have remained consistent with previous years, signaling that an increase in overtime usage isn’t necessarily due to more staff leaving agencies this year than normal…

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Crain’s New York Business

The latest report from the Center for Health Workforce Studies found that not only are job prospects worsening for New York’s medical residents but a lack of diversity among the resident population is also persistent.

It is a problem because outcomes are improved when patients can access care from doctors from a similar racial or ethnic background. Research has shown the mortality rate for Black babies is improved dramatically when Black doctors care for them after birth, and cardiovascular mortality rates for Black men are improved when they see Black doctors.

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Crain’s New York Business

The 2021 job market for physicians completing residency was not as strong as it was pre-pandemic, and a lack of diversity among the resident population persists, according to a new report from the Center for Health Workforce Studies.

New York’s graduating physicians had fewer job options in 2021 compared to 2019, the survey found. About 35% of residents reported it was difficult to find a satisfactory job; 38% of them attributed the issue to a lack of jobs overall, and 38% said it was hard to find a satisfactory job because there weren’t many options in the places they most wanted to work. Furthermore, 21% of residents said they had to change post-graduation plans because of limited job opportunities.

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Dentistry Today

Dental therapy is a workforce model that introduces mid-level practitioners – dental therapists – to both preventive and restorative skills.

The introduction of dental therapists appears to improve access to and equity in dental service delivery in the US.

A recent study conducted by the Oral Health Workforce Research Center (OHWRC) at the University at Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) assessed the satisfaction of clinical providers, organizational administrators, and patients with dental therapists working at Apple Tree Dental in Minnesota, the first US state to authorize dental therapy practice statewide. Apple Tree Dental was among the first employers of dental therapists, employing them since 2012…

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Crain’s New York Business

The idea that students no longer need a degree to get good jobs in the city has found important validation in a new program that could turn out more qualified, but not necessarily degreed, candidates in the health care field…

…New York City’s total employment is down 5.5% from its record February 2020 level, according to the latest seasonally adjusted data from the state’s Department of Labor. In health care the labor shortage has reduced hospitals’ teams of clinical laboratory technologists and medical assistants, the Center for Health Workforce Studies found…

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