The following document contains proceedings from Re-Imagining Michigan’s Primary Care Workforce, a Michigan Health Council event.
PREFACE
Michigan’s primary care workforce is at a crossroads. On one hand, we have both a rapidly aging population and more than 600,000 newly insured individuals through health care reform efforts, putting more demands on our primary care system to treat chronic and complex health care conditions. On the other, our existing primary care workforce is rapidly approaching retirement and new physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners have different practice and lifestyle preferences, which may limit existing health care capacity. The Michigan Health Council convened a group of 120 health care leaders throughout the state for a discussion on six recommendations addressing the potential primary care workforce shortage. This report reflects participants’ insights, both written and spoken. After reviewing these responses, we identified three critical steps necessary to expand the capacity of Michigan’s’ primary care workforce. In order to establish the groundwork for a new care delivery model that delivers the right care, at the right place, and at the right time, the Michigan Health Council will: Develop and deliver data-driven professional development content exploring the full range of knowledge, skills, and abilities of all health care team members to fully expand capacity of primary care teams Michigan’s health leaders need to develop a common set of desired outcomes from “payment reform” in order to finance a re-imagined primary care system. Since there are demonstrations and state innovations in process, we will: Create a report outlining specific aspects of “payment reform” that expand primary care capacity in Michigan Currently, there is a lack of primary source health care workforce data in Michigan. In order to strengthen workforce policy and planning in anticipation of increased demand, we will: Begin building a statewide data resource by convening a group of experts to identify essential elements of a statewide health care workforce data system Neither Michigan Health Council nor any other single group can be successful on its own. Michigan needs a coalition of groups invested in the future of the primary care workforce to work on building a workforce and delivery system to meet the needs of all Michigan families and communities. There is little time to wait and we are beginning work on these goals now. If your organization would like to join us, we welcome your support.
VIEW THE ENTIRE REPORT BELOW