United States General Accounting Office

Health Workforce - Ensuring Adequate Supply and Distribution Remains Challenging

There is growing concern that many Americans will go without needed health care services because worker shortages or geographic misdistribution of certain types of health care professionals may develop.

Changes in the U.S. health care system over the past two decades have affected the environment in which a variety of health professionals and paraprofessionals provide care. For example, while hospitals traditionally were the primary providers of acute care, advances in technology, along with cost controls, have shifted much care from traditional inpatient settings to ambulatory or community-based settings, nursing facilities, and home health care settings. In addition, the transfer of less acute patients to nursing homes and community-based-care settings created a broader range of health care employment opportunities. These changes have led to concerns regarding the adequacy of the health care workforce. And while the adequacy of the health care workforce is an important issue nationwide, the distribution of available health professionals is a particularly acute issue in certain locations. These medically underserved areas, ranging from isolated rural areas to inner cities, have problems attracting and retaining health care professionals.

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