Rural Health Research Gateway

Rural Health Center Expansion and Recruitment Survey

Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)
Research centers: South Carolina Rural Health Research Center
Phone: 803.251.6317
WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
Phone: 206.685.0402
Lead researchers: L. Gary Hart, PhD , 520.626.6258, garyhart@email.arizona.edu
Janice C. Probst, PhD , 803.251.6317, jprobst@gwm.sc.edu
Project completed:March 2006
Topics: Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs)
Rural Health Clinics (RHCs)
Workforce

This collaborative project examined and described the current staffing needs of rural health centers (RHCs), ascertained the staffing, recruitment, and retention issues that rural health center CEOs regard as most critical; distinguished how issues differ between CEOs contemplating development of expansion sites versus those who are not; and described how these findings correlate with the literature and current national supply projections for the categories of health professions needed by the RHCs.

RHCs face major barriers in recruiting and retaining health professionals, yet there are no projections of key health professions' staffing needs for RHCs and proposed new RHCs. While RHCs report on staffing via the Uniform Data System, this does not include critical information on vacancies, recruitment and retention, and other important issues. The National Association of Community Health Centers administered a mail questionnaire to the CEOs of all RHCs that examines current vacancies, projected staffing needs, recruitment and retention issues, center site expansion plans, and CEO perception of policies that would facilitate recruitment and retention. The WWAMI Rural Health Research Center was involved in the analysis of these data, and a joint report with the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center will be produced. This project is a collaboration between the federal Office of Rural Health Policy, the Bureau of Primary Health Care, and the Bureau of Health Professions.

Publications

  • Dentist Vacancies in Federally Funded Health Centers
    Date: 12 / 2005
    Presents results for dentists from a study of staffing needs at Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Provides information on dentist vacancy rates by rural and urban location. Compares dentist vacancies to other health care provider vacancies at FQHCs.
  • Family Physician Vacancies in Federally Funded Health Centers
    Date: 11 / 2005
    Presents results for family physicians from a study of staffing needs at Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Provides information on family physician vacancy rates by rural and urban location. Compares family physician vacancies to other physician vacancies at FQHCs.
  • Health Center Expansion and Recruitment Survey 2004: Results by Health and Human Services Regions and Health Center Geography
    Author(s): C. Holly A. Andrilla, L. Gary Hart
    Report Number: Technical report
    Date: 03 / 2007
    Reports findings from the national study of health centers staffing, recruitment and retention. Provides information by HHS region, urban and rural geography, and national overall estimates. Includes 118 graphs of selected survey results.
  • Registered Nurse Vacancies in Federally Funded Health Centers
    Date: 12 / 2006
    Discusses the registered nurse (RN) vacancy rate in federally funded health centers, which varies by degree of rurality.
  • Results of the 2004 Health Center Expansion and Recruitment Survey for Health Centers: Analyses for Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI States)
    Author(s): C. Holly A. Andrilla, L. Gary Hart
    Date: 11 / 2006
    Presents a subset of the findings from the larger national study of Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) staffing needs of FQHCs located in Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI) overall and by urban and rural geography.
  • Shortages of Medical Personnel At Community Health Centers: Implications for Planned Expansion
    Author(s): Roger A. Rosenblatt; C. Holly A. Andrilla; Thomas Curtin; L. Gary Hart
    Citation: JAMA, 295(9), 1042-1049
    Date: 2006
    To examine the status of workforce shortages that may limit Community Health Center (CHC) expansion, the authors surveyed all 846 federally funded US CHCs that directly provide clinical services and are within the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Analysis of the results showed that CHCs face substantial challenges in recruitment of clinical staff, particularly in rural areas. The largest numbers of unfilled positions were for family physicians at a time of declining interest in family medicine among graduating US medical students.